MOSCOW. July 9 (Interfax) - The supreme leaders of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic have approved a new Cabinet of Ministers, according to the People's Front of Novorossiya spokesperson in Moscow.
Marat Bashirov has been appointed as LPR Prime Minister; Hennadiy Tsypkalov, Vasyl Nikitin and Dmytro Semenov, as his First Deputies, the spokesperson said on Tuesday.
O. Laptev has been appointed the Cabinet's Property Manager; Serhiy Baranov, the Minister of Coal Industry, Fuel and Energy. The Defense Ministry will be led by Ihor Plotnitskyi, the Interior Ministry by Yuriy Ivakin. Mykola Dryomin has become the Minister of Industry.
Bashirov told the Supreme Council that the LPR intends to start talks with Russia over direct gas supplies. The spokesperson also said that the LPR Council of Ministers has decided not to pay no more taxes to Kyiv, "because a day earlier the Kyiv authorities cut off funding for Luhansk and Donetsk, and thus are not performing their duties to citizens," according to the spokesperson.