MP who traveled to Donetsk "answers only to his wife"

BELGRADE -- A deputy from the ranks of the ruling Progressives (SNS) who was an observer during Sunday's elections in Donbass says he went there as a private citizen...

Vladimir Đukanović added he saw no need to justify his private trips to anyone - except to his wife, "so she knows where I am."
Previously, opposition MP Borislav Stefanović asked the prime minister during question time whether the government was aware that Đukanović, and another SNS member of the Serbian assembly, Branislav Blažić, served as observers in Donetsk - and if they would now suffer any "consequences."

Đukanović told reporters he was in the People's Republic of Donetsk to observe elections, and that he and Blažić traveled there at the invitation of his friends "from a Russian NGO that monitors elections in Russia, and in eastern and Baltic countries," and which paid for their travel expenses.

He also revealed he did not inform PM and SNS party leader Aleksandar Vučić about this, reiterating it was a private trip, but adding he was "ready to suffer the consequences if the SNS decides anything he did calls for punishment."

"We went there as private citizens and we insisted that the fact we are deputies not be mentioned anywhere. This was a once in a lifetime trip and I would not have missed it for the world, and if I violated party discipline, let them punish me," Đukanović said.

The MP added that considering he is a journalist by trade, he wanted to witness the real truth about the events in that country, and that he also "did a feature story and some interviews."

According to Đukanović, many observers from the European parliament were also present during the voting in the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic in eastern Ukraine.

Head of the SNS group in parliament Zoran Babić spoke in defense of his colleagues to say they both traveled to Donetsk as private citizens.
Sources: Tanjug  - B92
4/11/14
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Related:

• White House condemns elections in Donetsk, Luhansk

• Russia says it respects east Ukrainian people's will expressed in elections

• Kiev to Declare Observers at DPR, LNR Elections Persona Non Grata. (One hundred observers from a number of European countries and the United States have arrived in the region)

• Foreign Observers Surprised With Kiev’s Intention to Declare Them Pesona Non Grata....