SEVASTOPOL, May 4. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, speaking at a press briefing in Crimea on Thursday, has called on foreign representatives to visit the Black Sea peninsula and see with their own eyes what is happening there rather than rely on fake news.

"It is very easy to draw conclusions relying on fake news and social networks accounts, which have nothing to do with reality," the diplomat noted. "It would be better for them, though, to muster up their courage, come here and see everything with their own eyes."

"The [Russian] Foreign Ministry is doing its utmost to encourage those who are boldly talking about Crimea and Sevastopol, about Crimea’s residents and Crimea’s problems from international rostrums to find time and come to see this land with their own eyes," Zakharova said.

"No one says there are no problems here," she noted, adding that the Russian government is working to solve them together with the peninsula’s population.

"However, the path Crimea traveled as part of Russia has been unprecedented," Zakharova emphasized. "Show us some other region that could get on its feet within such a short period of time under pressure from the international community, amid tough sanctions and total misunderstanding and, fundamentally, start its path by going back to square one. All of us know how much Crimea lagged behind in its development when it was part of Ukraine."