New Delhi: Arranging potential referendums to join Russia in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), the Kherson Region, and Zaporizhzhia require the will and the desire of the people living there as well as ‘certain conditions,’ Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
Peskov’s statement comes on the heels of an earlier remark made by the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and Chairman of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, who said that referendums on the territories of DPR, LPR, the Kherson Region, and Zaporizhzhia were likely to be organized this summer.
“It is not up to the Kremlin to make decisions on the organization of referendums,” Peskov told journalists. “We have repeatedly stated that it is completely up to the people living on these territories to decide on their future.”
“Firstly, it must be the people’s will, secondly, proper conditions must be set in place to organize referendums,” the Russian presidential spokesman said.
Asked by a correspondent to specify the nature of possible conditions on the issue, Peskov said: “It is obvious that at the times when security is not fully guaranteed given that we see continuous strikes by Ukrainian troops and nationalists targeting these territories, we don’t see the possibility of talking about this the organization of referendums right now.”
“We need to have – a) The will and desire of the people; b) to organize a set of required conditions,” he stipulated.
(Vinayak)