UNITED NATIONS, September 25. /TASS/. The West’s statements on non-recognition of the State Duma elections in Crimea is an attempt to distract attention from Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday at a press conference devoted to the outcome of his visit to New York for the 76th session of the UNGA.
"The fact that [the West] has grasped this Crimean issue, including the feverish holding of the so-called Crimea Platform in Kiev and an uproar over the vote, I think it is an attempt to divert attention from the fact that President [Vladimir] Zelensky-led Kiev has shamefully failed its commitments under the Minsk agreements to overcome the intra-Ukrainian conflict in the east of that country," Lavrov said.
"The second reason why they are acting so is probably simply diplomatic unprofessionalism, a lack of foreign policy professionalism, since professionals are perfectly aware that the Crimea case is closed once and forever," Lavrov added.
On September 16, at a plenary session in Strasbourg the European Parliament approved a report of Lithuanian lawmaker Andrius Kubilius, which called on the EU authorities to revise relations with Russia. The report says that the EU countries should be prepared to refuse to recognize the results of the forthcoming State Duma elections, if violations of democratic procedures and international law were exposed.