Valentina Matvienko
International recognition of the referendum in Crimea is inevitable, the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko. Her words leads RIA Novosti on Friday, March 17.
“Proposals to abandon ignoring the free will of inhabitants of Crimea have increasingly heard discussion on political platforms in various countries of the world,” she said.
Matvienko believes that the West recognize the Russian status of Crimea “not-too-distant future.” In her opinion, an important role in this process was played by the visits to the Peninsula of French parliamentarians.
Earlier Friday, the official Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow hopes that in the end the Kiev government recognize the Russian Crimea.
In mid-October of last year the Crimea was visited by deputies from Italy. In late July, the Peninsula was visited by the French parliamentarians. Head of delegation Deputy Natssobraniya Thierry Mariani expressed the view that if the Crimea became part of Russia, now in this region went to the military actions in the Donbas.
Crimea and Sevastopol joined Russia in March 2014 following a referendum. Kiev does not recognize their results and calls the Peninsula occupied territory. The Kremlin insists that the procedure conforms to the norms of international law. The third anniversary of the reunification of the Peninsula with the Russian Federation is celebrated on March 18.