We are apparently living through “panic times”: first, we just had the “ Pentagon wants to nuke Russia ” canard and second, now we have the “Novorussians recognize Crimea as part of the Ukraine” panic. Here is what actually happened:

The website of the Lugansk Information Center has just posted the official proposals of the Lugansk People’s Republic on how to amend the Ukrainian Constitution as, indeed, they were supposed to do under M2A. I am trying to get that text translated, but the offending passage is this:

Article 133. The system of administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine includes: The Autonomous Republic of Crimea, some regions with special status in Donetsk and Lugansk regions, provinces, districts, cities, districts in cities, towns and villages.
Ukraine is composed of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, some regions with special status in Donetsk and Lugansk regions, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Transcarpathian, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava , Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv regions, cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol.
Cities of Kiev and Sevastopol, some areas with a special status of Donetsk and Lugansk regions have a special status, which is determined by the laws of Ukraine.

In fact, what this means is that the LNR (and, possibly, the DNR) agree that Crimea is a part of the Ukraine.

Is that a big deal or not?

To answer that question, ask yourself two simple questions:

1) are the LNR/DNR competent to decide of the status of Crimea?
2) if this language is accepted in the new Constitution, will that make a difference for Crimea?

The obvious answer to both of these is, of course, a resounding “no”.

The folks in Novorussia can write and even solemnly declare whatever the hell they want – Crimea is part of Russia and this will never *ever* be negotiated by any Russian government.  Whether the LNR/DNR agree or not, or whether the Ukraine accepts that or not, and even if the entire planet disagrees with it, this is a done deal.  The status of Crimea is decided by 3 things:

1) The Russian people
2) The Russian Constitution
3) The Russian armed forces

So there is no reason to panic this time either, as these proposed amendments mean exactly *zero*.

However, this still begs the question of what the folks who drafted these documents were smoking.  My guess is that they wanted to make their proposals as “Ukro-compatible” as possible, you know – show some good will on the cheap.  If that was the idea, then this is both naive and very inept.  Not only did this result in yet another unwarranted panic, but it will just serve the Ukronazi propaganda (the Russian pro-US press is already making headlines with this).

Now, maybe I am not fair, but I am getting increasingly aggravated by the LNR and what I see at the very best as the “incompetence” of the LNR authorities.  I don’t know if the DNR supports these proposals, but I sure hope that Zakharchenko will distance himself from this nonsense.

For whatever it’s worth – I personally don’t believe that the Ukraine can survive as it is, between its current borders, even without Novorussia and Crimea.  My personal feeling is that the Ukraine as a project has already “tanked” and that all what is left is a long, painful and bloody agony.  I am certain that Crimea and the Donbass are gone, forever.  But I also believe that Odessa, Nikolaev, Mariupol will be gone next.  And then much of the territory East of the Dniepr.  There are also tensions in Lvov and the western Ukraine.  The US and its Ukronazi allies have tried to turn the Ukraine into a kind of “Banderastan” and now this entire project is collapsing on itself, really, and Russia and Novorussia have very little influence over this disintegrative process.

So, friends, please don’t panic.  This is yet another non-event and yet another sign that the internal politics of the Donbass are still a most disappointing mess.

The Saker