SIMFEROPOL, February 13. /TASS/. Permanent Representative of the Republic of Crimea under the President of the Russian Federation Georgy Muradov expressed support for the offer of Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya to invite UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Jonathan Allen to visit Crimea. Muradov noted that Crimea is ready to receive representatives of all countries.
Earlier reports inform that during a session of the UN Security Council on Ukraine, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya invited Allen to visit Crimea in response to his statements about Crimea’s population allegedly finding itself in a difficult situation.
"The invitation is absolutely correct, I support it. If he [Allen] comes, we are ready to show and tell him everything, to present all economic achievements and to show how the people of Crimea are living today. We will explain to him how the referendum took place," Muradov told TASS.
According to him, it is impossible to prepare resolutions that are then accepted by the UN "if you haven’t been there, haven’t seen it and do not know it, and only listen to what Kiev officials are telling you." Muradov added that Crimea is ready to receive representatives from all countries. "Let any UN representatives come, including those from the UK. I assure you that we will be glad to receive the guests, with all our Crimean hospitality," he stressed.
However, the Crimean official expressed doubt that Allen would accept the invitation to visit Crimea. "Unfortunately, I am not optimistic about this matter. They only need this whole Crimea story to promote an anti-Russian campaign. Otherwise, they would have to accept positive changes and obvious facts, but they need to carry on with the confrontation," he stated.
After the coup d’·tat in Ukraine in February 2014, Crimea and Sevastopol officials held a referendum, in which 96.7% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. 80% of the voting population participated in the referendum. The Russian president signed the reunification deal on March 18, 2014, which the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) ratified on March 21. Despite the convincing results of the referendum, Kiev, along with various predominantly Western countries, refused to recognize Crimea as a part of Russia.