SIMFEROPOL, November 28. /TASS/. Kiev’s sanctions against archaeologists conducting excavation work in Crimea are devoid of any sense, the director of the Institute of Archaeology of Crimea under the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vadim Maiko, told TASS on Thursday.
"The sanctions against archaeologists are devoid of any sense and go beyond the bounds of common sense, because we are doing the job we’ve always been doing. We do not ruin historical heritage of our peninsula, but on the contrary, preserve it. The way I see it, the sanctions are an utterly useless act," said Maiko, who earlier led a department at Crimea’s branch of the Institute of Archaeology of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences.
Since major construction projects were launched in 2014 the peninsula has experienced an archaeological boom.
"Scientists say such large-scale archaeological excavation work in Crimea has not been conducted for a long while. Tens of thousands of hectares are examined every year. Hundreds of thousands of hectares have been studied since 2014. The peninsula continues to develop. Construction work is underway and archaeologists have ever more work to do. This is good," Maiko stated.
The dean of the Faculty of History at Crimea’s Federal University, Alexander Gertsen, who had been lecturing in Crimea before the peninsula’s reunification with Russia, told TASS he reacted with surprise to the news of Kiev’s sanctions.
"This decision can cause no reaction but surprise. Archaeologists are like medics. They perform their professional duty. The more so, since no convincing arguments have been presented. The decision is rather political," Gertsen claimed.
He pointed out that archaeologists’ work in Crimea "is seen by the professional community as part of the world archaeological mainstream" and the results of research are published in magazines of world renown.
Kiev’s sanctions
On Wednesday, November 27, the Ukrainian authorities imposed sanctions on companies "involved in illegal search work at archaeological sites" of the peninsula and also for "destroying, ruining or damaging items of cultural heritage." The restrictive measures also apply to television and radio broadcasters in Crimea and providers of materials for the Russian defense industry. Neither concrete legal entities nor sanctions taken against them were named.
Starting from 2015 Ukraine has repeatedly slapped sanctions on Russian individuals and legal entities who, in Kiev’s opinion, harmed its interests. As a rule the sanctions include entry bans, the freezing of assets, suspension of compliance with economic liabilities, bans on loans and so on.