MOSCOW
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin appointed acting heads of the four new Russian regions who will govern until the regions\u2019 heads are elected according to Russian law.
\nThe same politicians who headed the regions prior to their accession to Russia have retained their posts. Denis Pushilin, who was a leader of Russian-speaking protests in the Donetsk Region after a coup in Ukraine, became acting head of the Donetsk People\u2019s Republic (DPR). Pushilin participated in a ceremony on April 7, 2014 when the DPR was created, and in 2018 he was elected head of the republic.
\nLeonid Pasechnik is now acting head of the Lugansk People\u2019s Republic (LPR). In 2014, when protests against Euromaidan events and a nationwide coup began in southeastern Ukraine, he took the side of the Lugansk Region\u2019s people\u2019s militia and was elected head of the republic in 2018.
\nThe leaders of the two Donbass republics retained the title of heads, while the heads of the other two regions became acting governors.
\nYevgeny Balitsky, who headed the Zaporozhye Region\u2019s military-civilian administration, will be the region\u2019s acting governor. The military-civilian administration was formed in the region\u2019s liberated areas after those had been taken over by Russian troops. And Vladimir Saldo, previously the head of the Kherson Region\u2019s military-civilian administration, became the region\u2019s acting governor.
\nFollowing referendums where voters opted for the accession of the regions to Russia, Putin and the heads of the four regions signed treaties on their accession to Russia at a Kremlin-hosted ceremony on Friday.
\nPushilin, Pasechnik, Balitsky and Saldo signed off on the documents on behalf of the four regions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed acting heads of the four new Russian regions who will govern until the regions\u2019 heads are elected according to Russian law. The same politicians who headed the regions prior to their accession to Russia have retained their posts. Denis Pushilin, who was a leader of Russian-speaking protests in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-287846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n