OREANDA-NEWS. Russia's recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics will provoke "strong verbal reactions", but negotiations will continue. Jan Nolte, Bundestag deputy from the Alternative for Germany party, told Izvestia on Tuesday, February 22.

“The recognition of the DPR and LPR is described by German politicians and the press as a “pretext for an invasion,” although the Minsk-2 agreement stipulates a special status for the two regions. So it's not entirely logical. After all, if the US and the press were right, Russia would have invaded last Wednesday (February 16) - without any recognition, ”he said.

The Bundestag deputy suggested that after the recognition of the republics there would be "strong verbal reactions", but the negotiations would continue. According to him, anyone who reads the Minsk agreements will see that a special status for these two territories was originally planned by all parties.

“By the way, the German government seems to be looking at Ukraine so closely right now that it probably completely overlooked a recently surfaced memorandum that proves NATO’s promise in 1991 not to expand to the East,” Nolte concluded.

Earlier in the day, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, drew attention to the fact that the recognition of the independence of the regions of Donbass does not affect the composition of the parties to the Minsk agreements and, moreover, does not relieve Kiev of obligations to implement them. He clarified that the Ukrainian authorities did everything to sabotage and destroy Minsk-2.