Russia’s Federation Council has unanimously approved laws on the ratification of four international agreements on accepting the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR), as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, into Russia, TASS reports this morning. Lugansk and Donetsk will be republics within the Russian Federation while Kherson and Zaporozhye will be regions with their heads titled as governors. The Russian president will appoint acting heads of the new constituent entities within ten days from the day of their acceptance into Russia.
Chairman of the Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrey Klishas explained that the final step of the process will be the amending of the Russian constitution by Putin’s decree accepting the four entities into Russia. “In accordance with our domestic legislation, the constitutional and legal procedure to accept [new regions] will be completed with the inclusion of these entities in Article 65 of the Constitution, which is within the president’s constitutional powers,” he said at a committee meeting prior to the vote.
Klishas explained that once the Federation Council approved the federal constitutional laws, they would be sent to the president for signing. After that, the laws will have to be officially published and then, based on the Russian Constitutional Court’s decision, the Russian president will be able to issue a decree to make the necessary amendments to Article 65 of the Constitution. Klishas specified that the presidential decree would add four new entities –- two republics and two regions — to the list of Russia’s constituent entities contained in Article 65.
