MOSCOW. July 20 (Interfax) - Moscow will be consistently facilitating a settlement of the conflict in Donbas, deputy chief of the Russian Presidential Executive Office Dmitry Kozak said in an interview with the French publication Politique Internationale.
"Moscow's position in regard to the DPR and the LPR [the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics] remains unchanged. Ukraine and Donbas should peacefully settle their conflict. The Russian Federation will be patiently and insistently facilitating this and will support any peace agreements between the parties, even if there is an agreed initiative to go beyond the Minsk Agreements. This is their exclusive right," Kozak said.
"Any other decisions would mean the destabilization of a region bordering Russia, with all the ensuing negative consequences for our country," he said.
Russia's decision to issue passports based on a fast-track procedure to people in Donbas is of an exclusively humanitarian nature and cannot be viewed as a tool for subsequent incorporation of the DPR and LPR into Russia, Kozak said.
"To be precise, about 470,000 residents have received Russian passports. The decision to issue passports based on a fast-track procedure was made exclusively as a humanitarian measure, after Donbas was blockaded and its residents had their civil rights restricted. The decision to issue passports cannot be viewed as a tool for or an indication of the DPR's and the LPR's imminent incorporation into Russia," he said.
"As soon as the situation in Donbas is settled, there'll be no need for this decision any longer. The general procedure for granting Russian citizenship will be reinstated," Kozak said.
"Our actions don't run counter in any way to the existing international legal norms and practices of other states," he said.