The Russian Senate unanimously approved on Tuesday the laws for the ratification of the annexation treaties signed on Friday by the Russian president and the pro-Russian leaders of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia.
All four laws were supported by all members of the Upper House of Parliament.
The documents were presented to senators by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The minister affirmed that “it does not matter” that “the West does not recognize” the referendums “on the incorporation” in Russia of these territories, stressing that it is “a new reality”.
Before the votes, Senator Ludmila Naruzova referred to the “unprecedented fact” of the annexation of territories that are still under the partial control of Ukraine.
The chairman of the Constitutional Commission, Andrei Klishas, responded that the Constitutional Court has already approved the treaties.
In this way, the legislative procedures on the annexation treaties that will come into force after being promulgated by the head of state, Vladimir Putin, are concluded.
On Monday, the treaties were ratified unanimously in the lower house of parliament (Duma) without any debate taking place.
The treaties establish that the official language in the new regions will be Russian, although the Ukrainian language is authorized.
The national currency will be the ruble, the currency of Russia, and the regions -integrated into the Russian Federation- will keep their names: both the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk and the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.
The legislative process in the Moscow Parliament coincided with the loss of territories in the Donbas, in southern Ukraine, which forced Putin to decree the partial mobilization (reservists) of the Armed Forces.
Vladimir Putin and pro-Russian leaders signed annexation treaties in the Kremlin on Friday that were rejected by the United States and the European Union, as well as Moscow allies such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the People’s Republic of China, Turkey, India and Serbia.
Source: TSF
