REUTERS
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency Mykola Azarov and former First Deputy Prime Minister and former National Bank of Ukraine head Serhiy Arbuzov are reportedly being considered by the so-called "political circles" of Donbas militants as candidates to replace the current leader of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Oleksandr Zakharchenko, the Information Resistance Group reports.
According to the group, the DPR's "political circles" are spreading information that in spring this year, the Russian side will dismiss Zakharchenko and appoint a new "head." They mention such candidates as Azarov and Arbuzov, as well as a former governor of one of the southern regions of Russia, whose appointment is allegedly being lobbied by Boris Gryzlov, Russia's new representative to the Minsk contact group talks and Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper wrote in the middle of December 2015 that Ukraine's ousted ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and other top officials and businessmen from his entourage that fled to Russia could reemerge as leaders of the self-proclaimed "DPR" and "LPR" terrorist organizations in the occupied areas of Donbas.
"Plotnitskiy [self-styled leader of the Luhansk People's Republic – LPR] and his counterpart from the "DPR" Zakharchenko, once completing the purging, will also fall under it. And they will be replaced by politicians and businessmen from the inner circle of Yanukovych who fled to Russia. It's no coincidence that 'the president who is alive and legitimate' has recently announced publically his intention to return to politics," Novaya Gazeta wrote citing its "well-informed sources."