MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Speaker of the People’s Council (parliament) of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Andrei Purgin has been sent to resignation. His duties will be performed by deputy speaker Denis Pushilin, the Donetsk News Agency said late on Friday citing Pushilin’s statement.

"An initiative group of lawmakers called an extraordinary meeting of the DPR People’s Council. Seventy out of 73 lawmakers voted to remover Andrei Purgin from the post of the People’s Council speaker. Deputy speaker Denis Pushilin was appointed acting speaker," the statement said.

Pushilin’s first decree as acting speaker was to dismiss head of the Council’s administrative department Alexei Alexandrov. Explaining this move, Pushilin said that over the period when Alexandrov had occupied his post "lawmakers and employees of the People’s Council had to face a number of problems, from management ones to wage arrears." "Moreover, instead of doing his job, Alexei Alexandrov has made a number of political statements running counter to the policy of the entire state," Pushilin said. "To my big regret, speaker of the People’s Council Andrei Purgin has fallen under the influence of this man."

"The last straw was today’s attempt to frustrate the meeting of the People’s Council when lawmakers had to listen to knowingly false statements geared to whip up tension and destabilize the situation," Pushilin said.