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Duma speaker critical of initiative to pay Ukraine compensation for Crimea

The Czech leader earlier suggested that Russia compensated Ukraine's loss of Crimea "in financial form or in oil and gas"

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. The speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, criticized the recent proposal to pay compensation to Ukraine for Crimea’s reunification with Russia, describing it as "bargaining."

"That’s pure bargaining. Why don’t Spain discuss this matter with Catalonia. We’ll see how this discussion unfolds," Vyacheslav Volodin said, adding that such proposals were inadmissible.

"One should assume that there was no central authority in Ukraine at that moment, there was a revolutionary situation. And residents of Crimea came to polling stations to express their free will, and 93% of them voted in favor of joining Russia. All international legal procedures were observed, that’s why it makes no sense to raise this issue again," he added.

President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman said on Tuesday at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that Crimea’s reunification with Russia was already an "accomplished fact" and any Ukraine’s attempts to return the Black Sea peninsula would trigger a European war.

The Czech leader added that Russia could pay compensation to Ukraine "in financial form or in oil and gas." He said that if Ukraine disagrees, it would mean a "European war." He also criticized Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s decision on handing over Crimea to Ukraine in 1954.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has already expressed its protest over the statement.