Donetsk, Feb 15 - DAN. Russian lawmakers at the Tuesday session supported a resolution on appealing to President Vladimir Putin to recognize the Donbass Republics.

“Resolution No 58243-8 on appeal of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Federal Assembly to RF President Vladimir Putin on the need to recognize the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic is approved by a majority of votes,” house speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said. “The resolution will be immediately signed and sent to the head of state.”

Earlier reports said that the Duma Council had put up for vote two appeals to the president on the recognition of the DPR and the LPR. The first calls for immediately sending the appeal to the president; the second for passing it to the Russian Foreign Ministry for consideration.

The first appeal was submitted by Communist lawmaker Kazbek Taisayev; the second by “United Russia” deputy Artyom Turov. Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Leonid Kalashnikov from the Communist faction was the co-speaker for the second appeal. The documents got 351 and 310 votes, respectively.

On January 19, the Communist faction together with its leader Gennady Zyuganov submitted for consideration by the State Duman an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. According to the document, the State Duma is appealing to the head of state to consider the issue on recognizing the Republics as “self-sufficient, sovereign and independent states.” The appeal says that the lawmakers “regard the recognition of the DPR and the LPR as substantiated and morally justified.” *jk