Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree ordering the government to seize Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which has been under the control of the Russian army since March.
According to the presidential decree, the plant and the adjacent facilities necessary for its operation must be state property.
To that end, the government must set up a company in charge of ensuring the security of facilities that have been the subject of attacks accused by both sides over the past two months.
It was precisely for this reason that the plant’s reactors were shut down on September 11, triggering renewed alerts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The Russian Foreign Ministry has already assured on Wednesday that after the annexation of the region last Friday, the plant is on state territory, so it must be controlled by state structures of this country.
In addition, the Russian company Rosenergoatom, which this week set up a company to manage its operations, announced the appointment of a new director for the plant, Oleg Romanenko, a former chief engineer at another Russian plant.
Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom on January 1 denounced the arrest and disappearance of the plant’s director, Ihor Murashov.
The manager of the plant was finally released on Monday and “expelled” to a Ukrainian-controlled area, meaning he will not return to work at the plant.
Putin’s decree was released shortly before IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi traveled to Kyiv and Moscow to continue his deliberations aimed at agreeing and implementing a security zone around the plant as soon as possible.
PUTIN AMENDS THE CONSTITUTION ANNEXING THE UKRAINIAN TERRITORY
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree amending the constitution to complete the incorporation of the four Ukrainian regions with which he signed annexation treaties on Sept. 30.
The annexation of these four oblasts – Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – forced the amendment of Article 65 of the Magna Carta, which includes 85 federal entities.
The Russian Federation now has 89 units, the same number as in 1993, two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Both the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, which are only partially controlled by the Russian army, will keep their names.
Putin repeated the same legal procedures used in the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014, which was also unanimously condemned by the international community.
First the Kremlin promoted separatist referendums, then it signed annexation treaties with these regions, which received the approval of the Constitutional Court and both houses of parliament, without even a parliamentary debate.
The only difference is that Putin announced the annexation this morning, just as he formalized it eight years ago during a solemn ceremony in the Kremlin.
Two years ago, after a controversial referendum criticized by the West, Putin reformed the constitution, changes that allow him to remain in power until 2036.
Then a clause was introduced prohibiting the head of state from ceding territories belonging to the Russian state to another country.
Before signing the annexation last Friday, Putin urged Kyiv to return to the negotiating table, although he made it clear that annexing these four territories was out of the question.
Opposition to the Kremlin has compared Putin to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for his penchant for legal formalities.