The speaker of the Crimea: the inhabitants of the peninsula would get out of Ukraine in 1991 – RIA Novosti

Simferopol, July 23 – RIA Novosti. The referendum March 16, 2014, during which Crimeans in favor of joining Russia, is not the first referendum on the status of the republic, the first was held in 1991, said the speaker of the State Council of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov at a meeting with the French delegation in Simferopol.

© AP Photo / Morry Gash

The delegation of 10 French MPs on Thursday arrived in the Crimea from Moscow, where he met with the head of the State Duma RF Naryshkin. Parliamentarians from France will visit Simferopol, Sevastopol and Yalta, where they will hold a series of meetings with local officials. In these moments there is a meeting of deputies from France with members of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea.

“March 16, 2014 was not the first referendum. The first referendum was held January 20, 1991, where 93 percent of Crimean residents were in favor of the creation of the state – party of the Union Treaty. That referendum was held under the supervision of the OSCE, but the results have not been implement. The result was the creation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the unitary Ukraine. And the first day of the struggle for the rights of the country. The three decisions of the Verkhovna Rada our gains were offset by a referendum, and we were only representative functions, “- he said at a meeting with a delegation from France Konstantinov.

He said that under the current at the time of the constitution of the Crimea referendum was held on March 16 on its right to conduct “was recorded in the Constitution of the ARC and we used it”.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry French MPs called the visit to Crimea “disrespect to the state sovereignty of Ukraine and deliberate violation of the law of Ukraine”. Diplomatic agencies of France called the planned visit a violation of international law.