The government recommended metallurgical holdings to consider iron ore supplies to companies in the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics, as RBC found out. The plants there were left without raw materials after the introduction of Ukrainian blockade of railway communication with the self-proclaimed republics.
The two unrecognized republics in 2016 accounted for almost 30% of exports.
Russian political strategist became Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic; if someone was looking for a "hand of Moscow" in the Donetsk separatism, the search can be considered successful, here it is: a hand with a Russian passport in it. Get it and sign it.