Russia wants special status for Donbas according to Steinmeier formula – Gryzlov

This was stated by Russia’s envoy to the Contact Group on Ukraine Boris Gryzlov, TASS reports.

"The voting on the Ukrainian Constitution should be tightly linked to the simultaneous passing of the amendments to Articles 1 and 10 of the law on the special status to ensure a permanent basis of this special status in accordance with the Steinmeier formula," Gryzlov is quoted as saying.

Article 1 of the law stipulates that it shall be valid within three years after the entry into force. A year has already passed. Article 10 stipulates that Articles 2-9 of the law shall come into force only after holding the local elections in Donbas in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation.

Gryzlov said that "we need to find a legal formula that would guarantee that paragraph 18 of the transitional provisions of the Constitution will refer to the existing version of articles 2-9 of the law on the special status and to the newly-agreed by the Contact Group editions of articles 1 and 10.”

The paragraph 18 of the transitional provisions of the Constitution, which so far exists only in the draft, says that "the peculiarities of the local government in some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions shall be determined by a separate law."

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