MOSCOW, September 21. / TASS /. Moscow will pay close attention to Ankara’s statement regarding its non-recognition of the recent legislative elections in Crimea, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday, commenting on the allegation made by her Turkish counterpart Tanju Bilgich, which was published on September 20.

According to the statement, the results of the parliamentary polls held on September 17-19, 2021, in Crimea "have no legal validity for Turkey."

"Turkey is well aware of the fact that Crimea is a sovereign part of Russia, and it is well aware that we never ignore such statements," Zakharova stressed.

"If they are not tired of hearing the relevant reprimands and reminders from Moscow, it means that they are patient people, however this does not lead to anything, except that we draw the appropriate conclusions, which definitely do not benefit bilateral ties," the diplomat stated.

As Zakharova pointed out, although the countries do not recognize any options for the expression of people’s will in Crimea (neither the 2014 referendum, nor the presidential and parliamentary polls, nor the 2020 Russian constitutional referendum), they still have no benchmark or standard, from which they base their conclusions.

"Year after year in the electoral process, Crimea symbolically confirms its choice made in 2014. What else needs to be demonstrated to the global community so that such individual voices recognized the voting results <…>? If one does not agree with something, they have to say what their standard is," Zakharova noted.

Elections to the 8th State Duma (lower house) were held on September 17, 18 and 19. Crimea had 1,131 polling stations, while another additional precinct was located at the Simferopol International Airport. In total, the peninsula has 1.5 mln eligible voters.