SIMFEROPOL, November 9. /TASS/. Crimea’s parliamentarians from the State Duma expressed hope on Wednesday that Donald Trump will live up to his campaign pledges to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.
"It’s time for the new president of the US to live up to his sounding promises to recognize the Crimean referendum," the former prosecutor of the republic Natalia Poklonskaya wrote in her Twitter microblog on Wednesday.
Dialogue not to start right away
Poklonskaya’s colleague in the State Duma, Crimea’s former vice-premier Ruslan Balbek, also expressed confidence that the US will reverse its stance on Crimea under the new president, however not immediately.
"It makes sense to start a conversation about where Crimea belongs only after the western public opinion is prepared... I don’t think the US authorities will start a dialog about Crimea immediately, most likely we will see (on the peninsula) numerous arrivals of observers, human rights activists, possibly to disprove the Western myth about an alleged territory of evil on the Crimean peninsula," Balbek told TASS.
According to him, "Trump is well aware that Russia is uncompromising on the Crimean issue," that is why the expected normalization of ties between Russia and the US will envisage " de-facto recognition of the present borders of the Russian Federation," he said.
Recognizing Crimea is in Trump’s interests
The upper house’s parliamentarian from Crimea, Olga Kovitidi, told Tass that she expected to head to the US as part of a Russian delegation. "I hope I will shake hands with Trump at the White House if he invites me as member of the Russian delegation," she said, noting that this would demonstrate that Crimea is noticed.
Kovitidi said it would be good to see the US recognizing Crimea before the delegation heads to the US. She expressed confidence that even if it does not happen at this point, Crimea will be recognized sooner or later. "It is in the interests of Trump himself to be as good as his word," she said.
"Anti-Russian rhetoric has been the cornerstone of the White House’s foreign policy," Kovitidi said. She compared Hillary Clinton with "an anti-Russian race horse which did not make it to the finish".
On Election Day, November 8, United States citizens cast their ballots and elected their 45th US President, Donald J. Trump.
By securing more than the needed 270 electoral votes, Trump, the Republican candidate clinched his presidential victory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message of greeting to Donald Trump upon his victory in the US presidential election.
As the Kremlin’s press-service has said Putin expressed the hope "for joint work to steer Russian-US relations out of the critical condition and also to address crucial issues on the international agenda and identify effective responses to challenges to global security."
Putin also expressed the certainty that "a constructive dialog between Moscow and Washington, based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and realistic attitude towards each other’s positions meets the interests of the people of our countries and the entire world community."
Crimean referendum
The Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, a city with special status on the Crimean Peninsula, where most residents are Russians, refused to recognize the legitimacy of authorities who took power amid riots during the February 2014 coup in Ukraine.
Crimea and Sevastopol adopted declarations of independence on March 11, 2014. They held a referendum on March 16, 2014, in which 96.77% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification treaty on March 18, 2014.
Despite the convincing results of the referendum, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union refused to recognize Crimea’s independence and its reunification with Russia.