The representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” participated in the negotiations in Minsk as observers, “DNR Supreme Council Speaker” Boris Litvinov said. The video of his press conference was published on YouTube by “DNR Ministry of Information and Communication” on Saturday, Sept. 13.
According to Litvinov, the “Prime Ministers” of DNR and LNR Aleksandr Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitskiy “were not direct participants in the tripartite meeting.” “They were witnesses of this thing, I construe it this way,” he explained.
According to Litvinov, Zakharchenko said that he had participated in the meeting out of respect to the initiatives of President of Russia Vladimir Putin. The DNR Premier “listened attentively to what was happening there, and took note of what the three parties agreed to.”
Litvinov stressed that Zakharchenko and Plotnitskiy “signed that they took the protocol under advisement,” and that the document “raised a lot of questions.” “I guess you can consider this document a basis for possible future negotiations,” suggested the “DNR Supreme Council Speaker” and added that the implementation of all the twelve points of the document was “impossible at the moment.”
“I would call it a protocol of intent. We need to sit down and talk over each of these provisions,” Litvinov said.
On Friday, September 5, representatives of Kyiv, “DNR” and “LNR” signed the protocol on cease-fire agreement in Minsk. Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Ambassador of Russia to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, OSCE Special Representative Heidi Tagliavini, “DNR Prime Minister” Aleksandr Zakharchenko, “DNR Deputy Prime Minister” Andrey Purgin and LNR head Igor Plotnitskiy took part in the contact group negotiations.
OSCE published the document on September 7.
[hr]Source: TVrain, translated by CitiCowboy
