Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean Peninsula, is ready to officially invite Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic for a visit, Sevastopol Legislative Assembly chairwoman Ekaterina Altabaeva told Sputnik on Wednesday
SIMFEROPOL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2019) Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean Peninsula, is ready to officially invite Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic for a visit, Sevastopol Legislative Assembly chairwoman Ekaterina Altabaeva told Sputnik on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that members of Russia's interdepartmental commission on Council of Europe affairs were informed that Mijatovic would visit Crimea from October 7-11. The commissioner later said that her visit to Crimea is yet to be confirmed as many issues should be clarified first.
"We are coordinating [everything] with the Russian Foreign Ministry in such cases. We have repeatedly invited guests from western Europe and we are certainly ready to do this [invite Mijatovic to Sevastopol]," Altabaeva said.
Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum in March 2014 following a change of power in Kiev which the peninsula viewed as a coup. The decision to reunite with Russia was backed by roughly 97 percent of voters.
Five years later, the results of the vote and Crimea's reunification with Russia are still viewed by Kiev authorities and the West as illegitimate. The West insists that Crimea "was annexed" by Russia and keeps on imposing sanctions on Russia under various pretexts. Moscow, however, stresses that the Crimean vote was held in accordance with international law.
