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Moscow ready to allow IAEA inspect nuclear facilities in Crimea - Russian Foreign Ministry

Acting within limits of its jurisdiction, the Russian Federation has undertaken full responsibility for the nuclear facilities in the new territories

MOSCOW, August 16 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow is ready to allow IAEA inspect nuclear facilities in Crimea, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

“In accordance with results of the referendum in Crimea on March 16, 2014 and in compliance with the agreement on Crimea’s and Sevastopol’s joining the Russian Federation, Crimea and Sevastopol make an integral part of the Russian Federation,” the foreign ministry said. “Acting within limits of its jurisdiction, the Russian Federation has undertaken full responsibility for the nuclear facilities in the new territories.”

Since March 20, the agreement of February 21, 1985 between the USSR and IAEA, and the additional protocol to it of March 22, 2000 are effective for the entire territories of the Republic of Crimea and the Russian Federal City of Sevastopol (long-standing home base of Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet on the Crimean peninsula), the foreign ministry said.

“If IAEA is interested in using guarantees at nuclear facilities in the territories of the Republic of Crimea and of the city of Sevastopol, we are ready to offer to the Agency full opportunities to inspect those,” the foreign ministry’s commentary read.