Crimea and Sevastopol are integrated into the Russian political, legal and economic space and the West’s hopes for a possible U-turn of the developments is nothing more but an illusion, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Maria Zakharova has announced at a briefing on March 7, EADaily’s correspondent reports.
Zakharova reminded that March 18 will be a fourth anniversary of the unification of Crimea and Russia.
“The life has shown that the decision taken by the Crimean people at the 2014 referendum was right; it was the only way to protect interests of the people from rampage of the radical nationalists in Ukraine who came to power through a coup d’etat,” she said.
According to her, 14 regional national and cultural autonomies are registered today in Crimea, including two Crimean Tatar ones. There is a special federal action plan for social and economic development of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol up to 2020 worth 700bn rubles (more than $12bn). In January 2018 only, more than 120,000 tourists visited the peninsula; vehicle traffic is planned to be opened via the Kerch Bridge this year, Zakharova said. She noted that Crimea enjoys intensive cultural life; more than 400 events are planned to be held there this year.
Nevertheless, some foreign media continue publishing unverified reports in Crimea as a part of the information campaign against Russia, she said.
“We are repeatedly saying: welcome to Crimea! We do not seek some glossy assessments or a ‘full-dress portrait’ of how Crimea lives today. We want objectiveness,” she concluded.