"Russia is unlikely to recognize the DNR and the LNR". Review of separatist publications

Last week, the separatist media and independent publicists happily wrote about the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic, frightenedly told how Moscow "abandoned" them and wondered about the formula for introducing the UN peacekeeping mission to Donbass.

Got into a mess...

A desire to invent a genealogical table played with the leaders of the "DNR" a wicked joke. It was decided to choose the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic (DKR), created in the chaos of the revolution and civil war, as a respected ancestor. Back in February 2015, the so-called "People's Council" adopted a "memorandum", in which it proclaimed the "DNR" the successor of the DKR. These loud militant statements were substantiated "by the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations" and by the results of the unrecognized "referendum" on May 11, 2014. However, as is often the case, the venerable "father of the family" had a lot of dirty secrets, which local journalists rushed to unravel.

But first things first. This week, the ancestor of Donbass separatism turned 100 years old. This anniversary was celebrated as the largest national holiday. Separatist media in detail, with pictures told about round tables, scientific conferences, solemn meetings, creation of postal stamps, and, of course, about the rally of employees in Lenin Square in the center of occupied Donetsk.

The speech of the "DNR" leader Alexander Zakharchenko, cited by the separatist media, was completely built on propaganda clichés. "One hundred years ago, our ancestors said yes to equality, freedom and justice, they said no to the West. The Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic was created in a very difficult time of war, revolution, devastation... And exactly after 100 years, we - the descendants of those people - picked up their banner and said yes to equality, freedom, justice, brotherhood, and said no to the West... ", - he tried to persuade students and “state” workers, who were summoned to the rally, in the in the connection between the two "republics". After that, "the descendant of the famous ancestors" had to explain, where did such a successful and worthy imitation state had vanished? The fact is that the DKR, which existed for a little more than a year at that time, was liquidated by Moscow in 1919 at the very first opportunity. And its founders, including Artem, either died under unclear circumstances, or were repressed. In this historical context, the statement of Zakharchenko, quoted by the DAN website, that “the DKR was destroyed by the enemy forces", sounds very ambiguous. It is likely that due to the lack of education, the leader of the "DNR" indirectly called Bolshevik Russia the enemy.

The "official" website of the "DNR" tried to bypass the fact that Russian forces destroyed the DKR and retold Zakharchenko’s words more carefully: "One hundred years ago, our ancestors lost". But the question remained open: to whom did the ancestors of the leader of the "DNR" lose? To Moscow?

Even one of the most erudite militants, the creator of the Vostok terrorist battalion Alexander Khodakovsky, did not escape the historical trap. He also considers himself an heir to the DKR. But he believes that it existed within Russia. "Just like a hundred years ago, we have to resist the current tendencies, and with almost the same methods. It's a pity that the declared LDNR cannot yet gain status "as part of Russia", as it did comrade Artem, the founder of the DKR, to whose monument we laid flowers today", - he wrote in the social network. In fact, "comrade Artem" on Moscow’s order agreed that "the Donetsk basin was considered as part of Ukraine" literally a month later. All party workers were ordered to work for the creation of a "unified government for the whole of Ukraine".

But one of the oldest DKR followers, disgraced Andrey Purgin, decided not to think about the past, but to look into... the future of DKR. The separatist Novorossia website quoted him as saying: "Comrade Artem was the man who could dream and carry out his plans, and he was the one who saw the future and was drawn to it. Today, Artem's ideas are voiced even by Vladimir Putin, and they have been existing in the intellectual elite of modern Russia for a long time. These are ideas of building Russia on the basis of economic regions and abandoning the devastating national-territorial division". OstroV tried to find Putin's words propagandizing the ideas of the DKR, but all the search engines proved powerless.

Minsk suffering

Meanwhile, the most perceptive separatists were able to discern a possible scenario for the immediate fate of the occupied Donbass against the backdrop of the DKR anniversary celebrations: Moscow, like a hundred years ago, might "shove" the "republics" into Ukraine, and then eliminate them completely. Someone close to the "DNR" authorities, hiding under the username Donetsk Aborigine, wrote this on the Live Journal website. "I want to draw attention to a double media shot during the celebration of the DKR anniversary, first noted by Alexey Chesnakov: "Russia will hardly recognize the DNR and the LNR"... The second synchronous event was the statement of the head of the Donetsk People's Republic Zakharchenko: "There is no alternative to Minsk".

And, indeed, the separatist media and leaders of public opinion paid a lot of attention to the anniversary of the signing of the Minsk agreements last week. Thus, local journalists quote the above-mentioned statement of the leader of the "DNR", where he says that Minsk is "the only place where issues can be resolved peacefully. There will be no alternatives to this platform, the process of communication will continue". A similar position is voiced by the head of the "DNR" delegation at the peace talks in Minsk Denis Pushilin: "Dialogue with the authorities of Ukraine... will allow to maintain a relatively calm situation on the contact line in the Donbass".

Donetsk Aborigine writes with indignation that “such peaceful declarations were made at the same time, when Zakharchenko was laying flowers at the monument of Artem, delivering furious speeches about the movement to the west, about the DNR’s succession of the DKR”. Kharkiv separatist Konstantin Dolgov also states that "today it's obvious: Minsk-2 does not work and it is definitely unable to replace the Ukrainian regime".

However, for the opponents of the Minsk agreements, DAN has published transcripts of speeches by Russian political scientists at the round table "Minsk Agreements: Three Difficult Years", which allegedly proved the usefulness of the agreements. The keynote was: "Comparative analysis of attempts to resolve regional conflicts not only in the post-Soviet space, but also in other parts of the world, shows that the Minsk agreements are the most optimal and balanced mechanism for a full-fledged settlement of such interethnic clashes."

Alexey Chesnakov, director of the Center for Current Politics, close to V. Surkov, stated that "if we rely on the already known experience of similar conflicts, it can be assumed that in the next few years, and even decades, the conflict in Donbass cannot be resolved…" At the same time, he praised the Minsk negotiation process for the fact that within its framework, in three years, it was managed to do what, according to him, took decades in other circumstances. "Alexey Chesnakov did not agree with the opinion that the Minsk agreements are dead. "It is not so. The Minsk agreements are an exhaustive set of measures, where all the terms on which the Donbass can be integrated into Ukraine are fixed, — he stressed", - DAN writes.

Absolute disagreement with such optimistic estimation of the Minsk process was voiced from the pages of News-Front.info , which is relatively oppositional to the authorities of the "republics". "Anyway, if the gun hangs on the wall in the first act of the play, it will eventually fire. The Minsk agreements could not take off this gun or at least clear it. On the contrary, the bullets accumulated all these years. There is actually an alternative to the Minsk agreements, this is a war, and everyone understands it. Furthermore, Kyiv is actively preparing for it", - the publication of Russian political scientist Dmitriy Rodionov, reprinted from LiveJournal, said.

The author of the "Minsk report" publication (nickname "Donetskiy") in LJ also negatively assesses the prospects of the Minsk agreement for the "republics". "It is always curious to read when such "colossus" as Alexey Chesnakov (close to Surkov, who is not in the Donbass), Denis Denisov and other Moscow political scientists discuss the successes of the Russian Federation in the Donbass with solemn faces", - the author writes. He himself is frankly disappointed in the Kremlin's position and believes that Russia is just pushing the Minsk agreements as capitulation with the preservation of face. "Moscow is throwing Donbass… Is there a "cunning plan"? Yes, of course. Its goal is to leave the Donbass, so that to protect the Crimea", - the author, whose publication is being actively spread and discussed on the web, writes.

"Blue helmets" of discord

The actively discussed at all levels issue of the peacekeeping mission in the Donbass became a marker of the fact that Moscow "surrenders Donbass" for speakers of separatist publications. The militants were afraid that the proposal of former NATO head Anders Rasmussen that 24 thousand soldiers and policemen from non-NATO and non-Russian countries should be sent to the Donbass was positively perceived by the Kremlin leadership. In that regard, Novorossia separatist website interviewed Bogdan Bezpalko, member of the Council for Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia. "For the time being, the prospect of peacekeepers is very vague and unclear - in view of the apparent divergence in understanding of their role in the conflict settlement. Russia can veto the decision to introduce a peacekeeping contingent, if it does not meet its interests", - he tried to reassure the authorities of the "republics" and the separatist community.

Alexander Khodakovsky, creator of the terrorist Vostok Battalion, also calls not to be afraid of any peacekeepers. He positions himself as a wise politician, who always has his own, perfectly correct opinion with an eye to the "throne" of the "DNR" leader. In particular, the militant mentioned the problem of the UN peacekeeping mission. "I will try to end the topic of peacekeepers while asking a couple of questions aloud, - he writes in social networks, - Let us say that someone thinks it is acceptable and starts preparing for the realization of the "idea": what mandate will peacekeepers have, so that they will be able to do what no one could during the last years of the war - to make peace? Will they have the right to shoot in sight everyone who moves the trigger on the front? Or will they themselves become a human shield between us and them? How is this assumed at the density that is peculiar to our front? We are literally nose to nose with the enemy on some sites - who and how much should be withdrawn? Ukraine will refuse, as always, and where should we withdraw - to the city center? We do not have a reserve of space. And if we are not withdrawn, there will be no more sense from the peacekeepers than from the OSCE - they will become regular observers".

Moreover, according to Khodakovsky, it is impossible to deploy such a large peacekeeping contingent in the occupied Donbass: "They will not stay in bivouacking in the open field, will they?". In other words, he does not just position himself as an opponent of the idea of ​​peacemaking, but tries to prove its complete futility. "So, after being silent about our rejection of this decision, the idea cannot be realized technically. It is an attempt to fit a square peg into a round hole", - the terrorist sums up.

The author of the "Minsk report" publication, already mentioned by us, voices a different point of view. He analyzes in detail the analysis of situation in the Donbass, published in Russia, "with an optimistic title "Between light freezing and difficult compromise".

Donetsk anonymous believes that it can be considered "an official study guide for those who believe that the authorities are right… It is not for nothing that the report is posted on TASS". According to him, the unenviable fate of the republics is clearly and unambiguously stated in this "study guide". "You can not believe bloggers, Tsarev and Western voices, but almost official texts are in front of you, where the LDNR is ALREADY shopworn, and its leadership just needs to put ONE signature under the permission for the Swedes' and the Austrians' entry (by no means West) in exchange to the fake amnesty and fake status. Guys, use your brain, it will be too late in the barracks of concentration camp".

By the way, do not disregard the anonymity of some publications. It is quite unsafe to contradict the official position of the "party and government" in the "young republics". You will not be saved either by your former merits or by the excessive Donetsk patriotism. That way, Luhansk separatist-oppositionist Nikolai Vulich left a message on his website this week: "In connection with the next witch hunt in Luhansk, I had to move with my family to my country house. I do not want to endanger my family. They are looking for me, but quite unprofessionally. The guys who hooked on a lot of general's stars after the police school know nothing about tracing. Sorry for the lyrical digression, my readers…". And Tatiana from Makiivka, after she told that nobody wanted to come to the grave of terrorist Givi, who was killed a year ago, removed her page in social network.

The review was prepared by Yuriy Bovkh, OstroV