MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. The European Union has got bogged down in lies saying that Russia denies access to Crimea for foreigners, while it is the EU that resorts to all possible tools not to let its citizens visit Crimea, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

"As for denial of access to Crimea, the German permanent representative to the United Nations spoke about, I would like <…> to refute this statement," she said. "This is you [the European Union] who think that discrimination is possible even on visa-related issues <…> under pretexts of advocating human rights. And after that, you accuse us of not letting people visit Crimea. It looks like you have gotten bogged down in lies." 

According to the Russian diplomat, the European Union has been threatening its citizens with sanctions for visits to Crimea, while denying visas to Crimean residents and blocking travel possibilities.

Zakharova stressed that the Russian side has always demonstrated readiness to receive any international human rights monitoring mechanisms in its regions, including in Crimea, on condition that such missions are duly mandated for that. "We also welcome visits to Crimea by politicians, journalists and public activists because we think that it is the most efficient way to inform the global community about the situation on the peninsula," she noted.

The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman called on European diplomats to stop using international formats to propagate untrue information about Crimea in particular.