Residents of Sevastopol urge Russia to recognize LPR and DPR as independent States
Pro-Russian residents of Sevastopol organized a rally to demand that Russia’s leadership recognize the Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR) People’s Republics as independent States and establish trade and economic relations with them. The rally took place on the 18th of February, 2017.
As reported by Krym.Realii, approximately 150 people attended the event. The organizers of the event said that "the vent was attended by ordinary citizens, who gathered at local city forum". People mostly held DPR symbols and State flags of the USSR. The protesters adopted a resolution, signed it and intend to send it to the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
The main requirement of this resolution is the recognition of the statehood of the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine controlled by DPR and LPR separatists. Judging by the symbols, there were many supporters of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) among those attending the rally. They expressed a more moderate position, talking about the need to implement the so-called Transnistrian scenario.
This scenario provides for the establishment of trade and economic relations with the DPR and LPR with the compulsory presence of a Russian military peacekeeping contingent at the contact line between the separatists and the Ukrainian Armed Forces but without recognizing them as sovereign independent States.
The leader of the Sevastopol branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Vasily Parkhomenko, articulated this position, adding that this is the minimum expectation.