The Russian region of Crimea plans to challenge Kiev in an international court and demand the government pay damages that it inflicted on the peninsula while it was a still part of Ukraine, Speaker of the Crimean Parliament Vladimir Konstantinov said on Thursday
SIMFEROPOL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th March, 2019) The Russian region of Crimea plans to challenge Kiev in an international court and demand the government pay damages that it inflicted on the peninsula while it was a still part of Ukraine, Speaker of the Crimean Parliament Vladimir Konstantinov said on Thursday.Earlier this month, speaker of the Russian lower house Vyacheslav Volodin tasked lawmakers with assessing the losses the Crimean economy had suffered when the peninsula was part of Ukraine in order to seek the appropriate reimbursement from Kiev. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 18 that the Kremlin had not discussed this plan.
"The working group has begun to work and collect initial information. It is general though accurate calculations will be made later. Politically, this is a very important thing ... We should really make claims to recover these assets. It will be completely fair. It should be properly formalized. Now we are in the initial stage of drawing a general package of claims. After everything is calculated, the appropriate law firms will properly file this lawsuit, and it will go forward," Konstantinov told the Sputnik in Crimea radio station.
The international lawsuit will, first and foremost, have a moral aspect to it since the majority of Ukrainians are unaware that Kiev is responsible for causing significant damage to Crimea, the speaker noted.
According to him, Crimea was underfunded while in Ukraine, despite paying taxes to the state budget, and the peninsula's lands had been mismanaged and embezzled.
Crimea rejoined Russia on March 18, 2014, after 97 percent of those participating in a regional referendum voted for the reunification. Ukraine and the majority of Western countries continue to consider Crimea as a Ukrainian territory, accusing Russia of illegally annexing it. Russian President Putin has said that the issue of Crimea's territorial belonging is "historically closed," since Crimean residents decided to rejoin Russia in accordance with democratic procedures.
