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Crimea and Sevastopol

Kiev denounces Crimea and Sevastopol elections as illegitimate

Crimea and Sevastopol were and will remain an integral part of the sovereign state of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry says in a statement

Vote counting in Crimea ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Pochuyev

Vote counting in Crimea

© ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Pochuyev

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KIEV, September 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed State Council elections in Crimea and the Russian federal city of Sevastopol on Sunday as "illegitimate".

"Results of the elections will have no possible impact on the current autonomous republic status of Crimea and Sevastopol," a ministry statement said.

"Crimea and Sevastopol were and will remain an integral part of the sovereign state of Ukraine, subject to Ukraine's constitution and its legislation. The results are illegitimate from the legal viewpoint," the ministry added.

Elections in Crimea and Sevastopol

Rebuffing Ukraine's attack on the territory's first elections since it joined the Russian Federation on March 16, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the event proved the legality of political processes in Russia. “All the participants of the election campaign in Crimea have shown to us and our neighbors that the power in Russia is based on legal procedures,” the Russian prime minister said.

Medvedev, who leads the ruling United Russia party, said that during “the first voting day in Crimea, all the democratic guarantees enshrined in the Russian Constitution worked”. He said various parties “actively participated in forming the new element of our political system on the (Crimean) Peninsula”.

Medvedev praised the decision to hold the election before the end of the transition period in the region, which will last until January 1, 2015. “No region in this country can develop without new modern power, including the Crimean Republic and Sevastopol,” Medvedev said.

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Crimea and Sevastopol Ukraine Dmitry Medvedev Sevastopol

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