MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Political and economic pressures by the European Union are futile and will be unable to change the fact that Crimea and Sevastopol are parts of Russia, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday in the wake of a statement by the EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Parliament’s resolution On Ukrainian Political Prisoners in Russia and the Situation in Crimea.

"Quite cynical is the attempt to present as a component of the policy of non-recognition of Crimea’s reunification with Russia the non-selective discriminatory restrictive measures by the EU against the Crimeans, which look like ‘visa repressions’ and run counter to a number of norms of international law," the foreign ministry said.

"Here is a fresh reminder that Crimea and Sevastopol are integral parts of Russia, while the methods of political and economic pressures the European Union keeps using with great obstinacy are absolutely futile and unable to change this fact," the ministry said.

Alleged ‘militarization’

The ministry said European Union’s allegations about ongoing militarization of Crimea sound perplexing on the backdrop of NATO’s expanding presence in the Black Sea littoral countries.

"Allegations about ‘threats to international security’ and ‘ongoing militarization’ of Crimea sound perplexing," the ministry said. "The European Union seems to be opting not to see deployment of elements of the US missile shield in Romania and Poland, frequent NATO navies’ drills in the Black Sea, NATO’s expanding presence in Eastern European countries, or the things that are negatively impacting the security situation in Europe, including the Black Sea region."

Human rights

According to the ministry, European politician’s assessment of the human rights situation prove that the European Union has lost any moral right to position itself as an authoritative expert on that matter. "Being driven by considerations of dubious political expediency, Brussels prefers to turn a blind eye on the actions of the Kiev regime and Ukrainian nationalists who have cut water and energy supplies to Crimea, who don’t pay allowances and pensions, who block railway traffic with southeastern Ukraine. Likewise, it is turning a blind eye on migrant problems inside the European Union, including disappearance of migrants’ children and violations of their rights, the situation of ‘non-citizens’ in Latvia and Estonia, growing racism and xenophobia across the European Union, blatant violations of human rights as a number of EU countries took part in the notorious CIA secret prisons," the ministry said.

"However in their resolutions on Crimea, European lawmakers prefer to see only mythical deterioration of the situation of the Crimean Tatar population, despite the fact that real progress in restoring their rights was achieved only after Crimea’s reunification with Russia," the Russian foreign ministry stressed.

Seeing once better than hearing twice

To have a real picture of the situation in Crimea, the ministry recommended European politician to pay a visit to the peninsula "like many unbiased politician and public activists from the European Union member countries have already done."

But so far, "Brussels is still out of touch with reality preferring to keep ignoring the obvious - positive changes in the life of people in Crimea and Sevastopol after reunification with Russia," the ministry stressed.