MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. Russia turns down the draft annual report of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] over the latter’s position on Crimea and Sevastopol, head of the Russian delegation and ambassador at large Grigory Berdennikov said on Monday at a session of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna.
"We paid attention to the fact that the supplement to the draft report has an assertion that Sevastopol was allegedly party of Ukraine over the reporting period [in 2014], which is not true," the diplomat said. "It is a false assertion that ignores that fact that following an illegal state coup in Kiev in February 2014 people living in the then Crimean autonomous republic, including the city of Sevastopol, voted at a referendum for reunification with Russia. After that, we officially informed the IAEA secretariat that Crimea’s units were taken under Russian jurisdiction and suggested the Agency should apply guarantee under our agreement on guarantees."
"This is the reason why Russia cannot accept provisions of the annual report and supplements to it, and the report of the implementation of guarantees as running counter to this objective reality and turns them down," the Russian diplomat underscored. "We consider them as legally and politically void.".