For a surprise… Unanimously, the Russian deputies approved on Monday the law on the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye, occupied partly or almost entirely by Moscow.
Neither abstention nor vote against were registered.
The law is meant to protect Russian culture, language and borders, according to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who addressed MPs minutes before the vote: "We are not responding to imaginary threats, we are defending our borders , our country and our people.
(…) The United States has subjugated almost the entire collective West, mobilizing it to transform Ukraine into an instrument of war against Russia.
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Approved last Friday by Vladimir Putin, this decision sparked a shower of international condemnation.
Ukraine responded by asking for “accelerated membership” of NATO and declaring that it would not negotiate with Moscow as long as Vladimir Putin was president.
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