What does the Protocol (Etiquette and Formalities) of Minsk 2.0 tell us about the nature of the Minsk Deal itself?

While Minsk 2.0 was negotiated by Merkel, Putin, and Hollande, the document was signed, as with Minsk 1.0, on behalf of the "three-party contact group" by an OSCE envoy, Russia's Ambassador to Ukraine, and Kuchma as "the Second President of Ukraine." All these three have titles to their names (see the link). Below them, as in the case of Minsk 1.0, Zakharchenko and Plotnisky, the heads of the DPR and LPR, signed too, but without their official titles. The two-tier way of negotiating and signing spells and shows it clearly that, while Zakharchenko and Plotnisky are treated as an appendix to the process, Russia acts as part of the three-party "contact group" which is handing the demands and conditions agreed without the DPR and LPR participation in the negotiations to the latter for implementation--yet without the slightest recognition of the entities they represent. For, like Minsk 1.0, Minsk 2.0 is in its essence an act which stipulates dissolution and death of the DPR and the LPR.

This patently humiliating and low treatment of the representatives of the people's republics is a far cry from the way in which, for example, the Geneva talks and the Moscow talks were conducted between the Syrian government and the West-created opposition, which revolves around al Qaeda-organized armies.

PS: the claim that Zakharchenko and Plotnisky did not sign was lame disinformation, happily circulated by the usual disinformation channels.

https://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_46375