Armed persons led by interior minister Kornet arrest prosecutors in separatist LPR
Divisions of the local LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic) Interior Ministry and the DPR’s (Donetsk People’s Republic) Special Forces Vityaz stormed the LPR Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO).
According to Novaya Gazeta, Vitaly Podobry and LPR military prosecutor Sergey Razno were detained, the rest were dismissed. PGO investigator Leonid Tkachenko was arrested the day before.
As the Russian news outlet notes, the LPR Interior Ministry arrested all the PGO staff – more than 20 people, including the head of the PGO, the military prosecutor and their deputies – and took them to the LPR People’s Council building. The building is currently cordoned off and being used by the LPR Interior Ministry for its own purposes.
The PGO staff were arrested after so-called LPR Interior Minister Igor Kornet advised LPR head Igor Plotnitsky to hand over to him the chief prosecutor, military prosecutor, and their deputies.
However, Plotnitsky refused to hand over Irina Teytsman, chief of the LPR administration, Yevgeny Seliverstov, head of LPR Interior Ministry state security service, and Anastasia Shurkaeva, head of GTRK LPR, all of whom Kornet accused of carrying out sabotage and reconnaissance activities on behalf of Ukraine.
The soldiers blocking off the streets in the center of Luhansk were reportedly unable to find their way around the city, not knowing addresses or street names. The locals considered them to have an accent, and thus believe them to be DPR militants, or forces from the periphery. Movement through the territory is now subject to passport control, although bags are not being searched.
The high-profile developments in the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic began to unfold after LPR head Igor Plotnitsky fired Interior Minister Igor Kornet.
Kornet, in turn, said that he does not intend to leave his post and, with the help of armed persons, he seized the administrative center of Luhansk on November 21. He also announced the arrest of “high-ranking representatives of government organs”.
It came out later that Moscow had supported the LPR Interior Minister in his conflict with Plotnitsky.
On the evening of November 21, a large convoy of military equipment arrived in Luhansk.
On the morning of November 22, a video was released on Plotnitsky’s website showing a meeting with the so-called LPR ministers. At the meeting, the head of the republic officially accused Kornet of attempting a coup d'état.