SIMFEROPOL, December 19. /TASS/. Crimea's leader said on Friday that European Union sanctions on the Black Sea peninsula will fail to humiliate Russia.
“Now we have a possibility to concentrate all constructive forces working for the country’s economic independence,” Sergey Aksyonov told reporters. “Now they (the EU) are working for us, for the Russian Federation," he said. "They have been doing it many times, trying to humiliate us and having us kneel. It won’t happen again.”
Brussels officials published details on Friday of new restrictions against Crimea. These ban supplies of more than 200 items ranging from cigarette lighters to sea vessels and floating structures together with “aircraft, spacecraft and parts thereof”.
EU companies may not provide tourism services in Crimea. Ships flying a flag of any member state are barred from entering or mooring at the peninsula’s seven ports — Sevastopol, Kerch, Yalta, Theodosia, Yevpatorya, Chernomorsk and Kamysh-Burun, except in emergencies.
Reaction from Crimea's leaders has been swift and dismissive. State Council Speaker Vladimir Konstantinov says the territory will withstand the new restrictiions.
“Their actions against us remain on their conscience,” Konstantinov told reporters. “We should go our way as we are a great people and able to cope with all our troubles.”
European businesses are additionally prohibited from supplying technology and equipment for transport, telecommunications and energy, and from prospecting, exploring and producing hydrocarbons and minerals. Technical assistance and brokering services for creating infrastructure in these sectors are also blacklisted.