Moscow - Kyiv, September 16 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - RBC analyzed the content of bills submitted by Petro Poroshenko to the Rada on a peaceful settlement in Donbass. The territories occupied by the militias will be given the right to live at their own discretion for three years, and Moscow will support them. In three years, when they are restored, Kyiv will return them to itself. Experts doubt the feasibility of the plan.
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The bill on the special status of the regions assumes that their borders will run along the boundaries of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO), defined in the law of Ukraine “On the fight against terrorism”. In this territory, Poroshenko proposes to hold elections of local councils and officials on November 9, and not October 26, the day of early elections to the Ukrainian parliament. The elections will have to be called by the Verkhovna Rada. The powers of elected leaders cannot be terminated early, the draft bill says.
In special areas, there will also be a special procedure for appointing heads of prosecutorial bodies and courts: they can be formed with the participation of local government bodies. Law and order can be monitored by the people's militia, formed on a voluntary basis from among those permanently residing in special areas. In the districts, the use of Russian or any other language is guaranteed. Now the only state language is Ukrainian, Russian and others can be recognized as regional.
Poroshenko promises the regions a special regime for conducting economic activity until 2017. By law, Kyiv will have to guarantee annual expenditures on the socio-economic development of the districts, and the volume of these government expenditures cannot be changed even with a general budget reduction. The bill makes it possible to strengthen and deepen economic cooperation with Russia on the basis of border cooperation agreements.
Poroshenko adviser Yuriy Lutsenko on Friday compared the special economic regime with a free economic zone, guaranteeing that everything earned by the region will remain in it. “The budget of this zone can be filled with funds from Moscow and Kyiv,” Lutsenko said, without explaining the specific mechanism.
The second bill introduced by Poroshenko - on amnesty - provides for the release from criminal prosecution and administrative liability of participants in clashes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions starting from February 22. The militias will be able to avoid liability if, within a month from the date the law comes into force, they release hostages and administrative buildings and voluntarily surrender their weapons.
The law will not apply to suspects of serious crimes involved in the crash of the Malaysian airliner and the investigation into the circumstances of the crash. Poroshenko noted that the amnesty will not include criminals under articles of premeditated murder, terrorism and others related to the integrity of the state. The LPR and DPR were recognized by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine as terrorist organizations.
If the militias agree to hold elections under Ukrainian law, this will be tantamount to a renunciation of independence. Poroshenko introduces bills, realizing that parliament may not support him, but it is important for him to demonstrate peace. If the DPR, LPR and Moscow reject or do not express a clear position, then Poroshenko can say with a clear conscience that he did everything possible, after which a resumption of hostilities is possible.