Signs of gratitude

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the recognition of documents issued in the self -proclaimed LPR and the DPR. This was reported by the Kremlin press service.

The identity certificates issued to "citizens of Ukraine and stateless persons who are permanently residing in the territories of individual regions of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine" organizations actually acting in these territories will be considered valid. The owners of such documents can enter Russia without registration of visas.

In addition, documents on education, birth certificates, death, conclusion and divorce, change of name, as well as certificates of registration of vehicles and their registration signs are recognized.

As stated in the document, the decision was made "in order to protect the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, guided by universally recognized principles and norms of international humanitarian law." This provision will act "before the political settlement of the situation" based on the Minsk agreements.

“For me, this decision is the next proof of Russian occupation and violation by Russia of international law,” said President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. According to him, Putin’s cynicity is given by the fact that this was done precisely during the Munich Security Conference.

“Having signed this decree, Putin legally recognized the quasi -state terrorist groups, which, like a fig sheet, covered the occupation of part of the Donbass by Russia. Such a step of the Kremlin completely crosses out the Minsk process and is equal to Russia's statement to withdraw from it,” said the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexander Turchinov.

On February 2, RBC said that owners of passports of the DPR and LPR in practice can freely enter Russia , as well as use the services of airlines, railways and hotels. This was told by residents of the self -proclaimed republics, as well as sources in the State Duma and diplomatic circles. In addition, this information was officially confirmed by the S7 Airlines.

Denis Pushilin, Deputy Chairman of the “People’s Council” of the DPR, said that since the spring of 2016 he has been using the DPR passport and enters it into Russia. Questions from border guards to the DPR passport sometimes arise, "but after a call, the senior to shift finds out that there is an order and miss," he said. According to Pushilin, the opportunity to buy tickets for this document is given by Russian airlines S7, UTAIR and Aeroflot. The representative of the LPR in the Minsk group Vladislav Demol also confirmed that in Russia you can use passports of the DPR and LPR.

The source of the publication in diplomatic circles explained the actual action of passports of self -proclaimed republics in Russia by the presence of an informal agreement between the Russian authorities and representatives of the DPR and the LPR to "turn a blind eye to these passports so that people can move around Russia." Under the diplomat, he emphasized that this is not a step towards recognition of the DPR and LPR.

A source in the executive branch noted that the decision to recognize the documents of the LPR and the DPR "is temporary and forced, since it is impossible to force people who find themselves in a difficult life situation, to live, as in a reservation, without the right to leave."

“This is not an official recognition of passports, we are talking about separate decisions that could be made by municipal, local authorities, as well as various companies, based exclusively from humanitarian considerations, guided by the need for truly humanitarian assistance to these people who live in the areas of Donbass,” the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said . He explained that such persons have unusable Ukrainian passports, and they do not have the opportunity to get any other documents.

The LPR and the DPR did not recognize a single state. Only the self -proclaimed South Ossetia established diplomatic relations with them. They began to issue their own passports in the LPR in the summer of 2015, in the DPR - in March 2016.