Diplomatic breakthrough: a delegation of French deputies goes on a visit to Crimea
A delegation of French deputies will arrive in Crimea to meet with the authorities of the peninsula and the local population. For the Russian Federation, this visit will be a kind of diplomatic breakthrough, since for the first time since the annexation of the peninsula to Russia, such a representative delegation of parliamentarians from one of the key EU countries will visit it, writes Kommersant.
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Its leader, Thierry Mariani, member of the National Assembly and member of the parliamentary commission on national defense and foreign affairs, spoke about the goals and objectives of the delegation in an interview with the publication.
“Ten parliamentarians, including deputies of the National Assembly Nicola Duic and Jacques Miard and Senator Yves Pozzo di Borgo,” Mariani informed about the composition of the mission. – Eight participants are members of Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right Republicans party, and one each from the center and left.
French deputies fly to Moscow on Wednesday evening, meet with Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin on Thursday, and then head to the peninsula, where they will meet with local authorities (including Chairman of the State Council of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea Sergei Aksenov and Governor of Sevastopol Sergei Menyailo) and with the population in order to understand how people live in Crimea.
According to Mariani, the French Foreign Ministry said that the idea of such a trip would not be supported, but he emphasized that French deputies are free to make decisions and they did not coordinate their route with Ukraine.
“The route does not bother us, we will fly from Moscow,” says the head of the delegation. – As for our group, its members are divided into two groups. There are those who - like Yves Pozzo di Borgo - fly to Crimea to understand the situation on the spot, get information, and communicate with people. And there are those who - like me or Nicola Duic - recognize historical facts; For us, the annexation of Crimea is an accomplished, final event, supported by a referendum and corresponding to historical reality.”
“As far as I know, this is the first visit of such a delegation. We discussed the possibility of implementing it with Sergei Naryshkin and Leonid Slutsky,” added Mariani, clarifying that the trip is being carried out at the invitation of the Russian Peace Foundation, and from Paris the initiative is supported by the association “Franco-Russian Dialogue with parallel support from the Russian Duma - through interparliamentary contacts .
It is noteworthy that for the first time such a significant delegation will go to Crimea, which includes the traditional political forces of France, Mariani noted.
“I emphasize once again that this is an individual initiative and a decision of the deputies; we do not act on behalf of France,” he concluded. – Moreover, some of us are traveling just to understand the situation. However, another part is confident in the logic of accession: there is no point in fighting history. There is another important point: it is symbolic that for the first time we are talking about such a significant delegation, the members of which represent the traditional political forces of France, and not, for example, the National Front.
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