A dispute has flared up in the State Duma over the status of Russian citizens fighting in Donbass
The State Duma of the Russian Federation today unanimously adopted a law recognizing combat veterans as participants in a special operation in Ukraine.
“Our soldiers, officers and generals, and these are Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Tatars and Bashkirs, Ossetians and Ingush, Chechens and sons of the peoples of Dagestan, Buryats, Tuvans and warriors of all nationalities, perform their duty with dignity and honor, not sparing their lives for achieving complete victory over the enemy. Extending veterans' benefits to them will help them maintain confidence that our entire huge country supports them,” said deputy Andrei Kartapolov, who presented the bill.
Communist Mikhail Matveev raised the issue of extending benefits to LDPR militias.
“Many people there have Russian citizenship. Secondly, our militias are fighting there and have been fighting for a very long time, for 8 years,” Matveev said.
Kartapolov believes that the State Duma does not have the right to agree to such an expansion of benefits.
“LDNR are de jure independent states. And our jurisdiction extends to citizens of the Russian Federation. Therefore, this bill will apply only to military personnel of the Russian army. As for our volunteers performing tasks on the territory of the people’s republics, this is a separate topic that needs to be studied, but not today,” he said.
This outraged United Russia deputy Vladimir Shamanov.
“For eight years, our compatriots have defended our interests. Why should we put it off until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow? This category must also be included; they deserve to be combat veterans,” he said.
The initiative was also supported by the representative of A Just Russia, Oleg Nilov.
“Donbass volunteers are the same defenders and combatants,” he said.
As a result, the Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Valery Volodin, instructed the parliamentary committees on defense and veterans’ affairs to work on this issue with the Ministry of Finance and without delay to submit it for consideration, “so that they fulfill their duty.”
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