MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. The Russian government has begun integrating Crimean ports into the federal transport system.

President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to take into account plans to build other sea hubs in the Azov-Black Sea region, defense facilities and ecological and social factors in the process.

The president has signed the corresponding directions after discussing it at a meeting in September.

Putin said sea terminals of Crimea and the neighbouring Krasnodar Territory should complement each other, adding that plans for modernization and development of Crimean ports, their efficient work and the integration into Russia’s transport system must be thoroughly considered in detail.

There must be also railway accesses to southern Russian ports, including across the Kerch Strait.

The premier is expected to present a corresponding report to the president by December 1.

Crimea's accession to Russia

The Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, a city with a special status on the Crimean Peninsula, where most residents are Russians, refused to recognize the legitimacy of authorities brought to power amid riots during a coup in Ukraine in February 2014.

Crimea and Sevastopol adopted declarations of independence on March 11. They held a referendum on March 16, in which 96.77% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deals March 18.

In the Soviet Union, Crimea used to be part of Russia until 1954, when Nikita Khrushchev, the first secretary of the USSR’s Communist Party, transferred it to Ukraine's jurisdiction as a gift.  

Work to integrate the Crimean Peninsula into Russia’s economic, financial, credit, legal, state power, military conscription and infrastructure systems is actively underway now that Crimea has accessed to the Russian Federation.

Despite Moscow’s repeated statements that the Crimean referendum on secession from Ukraine was in line with the international law and the UN Charter and in conformity with the precedent set by Kosovo’s secession from Serbia in 2008, the West and Kiev have refused to recognize the legality of Crimea’s reunification with Russia.