Petr Akopov: DPR and LPR will never live under the rule of those who are trying to build “Ukraine - not Russia”

The inclusion of the DPR and LPR into Russia depends on the strategy of Russia’s struggle for Ukraine. They can be both an outpost in this struggle and a catalyst for the collapse of Ukraine. If the process of Ukraine’s turn towards Russia is delayed, it will be necessary to move on to the full legal reunification of the DPR and LPR with the Russian Federation according to the Crimean model, says RIA Novosti columnist Pyotr Akopov.

-Peter, you recently visited Donetsk, where you took part in the forum “Unity of Donbass: protecting the rights and freedoms of Russians.” The first question in this regard: what are your impressions of Donetsk and the DPR? What surprised you, what did you notice?

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-Feelings from Donetsk are pride and sadness at the same time. Pride in the Russian people who defended their right to live on their land according to their own laws and rules. The sadness is that the republics have to live in a suspended, temporary state, people are forced to look for work on the side, in Russia the economic situation is difficult, there is little work.

They endure and wait, hope and believe that everything will get better, normal life will return, the front line will disappear. A very clean and quiet city - and the silence is not only of a city from which some of the citizens left because of the war, but also of a tense, collected and focused city.

The most powerful impression is Saur-Mogila. In one place, the memory of the battles of the Great Patriotic War and 2014 is compressed to the limit - nowhere do you feel the tragedy and victory of our people as much as there, nowhere do you feel such closeness to those who died for the Motherland.

-Okay, how do you like the forum itself? How do you think the rights of Russian people should be protected?

-The conference itself is important for two reasons - the demonstration of the unity of the republics and Russia, and the signal that it sends to the Russians and, in general, to all residents of Ukraine (“the rest of Ukraine”, AWESOME).

Russia will not abandon not only the DPR and LPR - it will fight for the Russians in the “crazy” territory, for their right to remain Russian. But Russia will fight not only against the Ukrainization of Russians in Ukraine, but also against the anti-Russian Ukrainization of those who consider themselves Ukrainians, against the formation of a Russophobic “Ukrainian people.”

-Your impression: Is Donetsk a Russian city? I’m asking simply because some comrades in Russia for some reason still consider him Ukrainian. In your opinion, should the Lao PDR become part of Russia?

-Donetsk is, of course, a Russian city. Like Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa and many other “Ukrainian” cities. Ukraine is generally Russia: Little Russia and Novorossiya. The struggle for the return of Ukraine to a union with Russia is the main task of the entire Russian people, on both sides of the state border. The DPR and LPR will never live under the rule of those who are trying to build “Ukraine is not Russia” and “Ukraine is anti-Russia.”

But the inclusion of the DPR and LPR into Russia depends on the strategy of Russia’s struggle for Ukraine. They can be both an outpost in this struggle and a catalyst for the collapse of Ukraine. If the process of Ukraine’s turn towards Russia is delayed, it will be necessary to move on to the full legal reunification of the DPR and LPR with the Russian Federation according to the Crimean model.

But in any case, now Russia must do everything necessary for maximum integration with the DPR and LPR - all their citizens must receive Russian passports, social and other guarantees, and the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation.

The economies of the republics must be fully integrated into the Russian one, and the standard of living in them must be comparable to the standard of living in the neighboring Rostov region. This is, of course, a priority task for the Russian government and Russian society.