acting Crimean Head Sergei Aksyonov
© russ-edin.orgSergei Aksyonov
Sanctions against Crimea deprive EU countries of the opportunity to work in the local market and profit from it, acting Crimean Head Sergei Aksyonov said.


"They deprived themselves of markets to sell their products and of the opportunity to participate in investment program of Crimea," Aksyonov told reporters in Simferopol on Tuesday.

The stance of the European Union, which banned imports from Crimea and Sevastopol, is not constructive, Aksyonov said.

"It is a dead-end stance to punish citizens for the opinion on what country they should be in," he said.

The EU decision to ban imports from Crimea was made under US influence, Aksyonov said. "General agitation over Crimea's accession to Russia has calmed down in the EU. As far as I understand in this case the US authorities push this stance," he said.

Crimea's accession to Russia is irreversible, he said.

The European Union's ban on importing goods from Crimea and Sevastopol will have no tangible effect on the region's economy, said Vitaly Nakhlupin, the head of the Crimean State Council's permanent commission for economic, fiscal, financial and investment policies.

"I do not envisage any major crisis. I do not even know which economic sector might be affected by it. Most of our exports were to Russia; now this is no longer export but domestic operations," Nakhlupin said in Simferopol on Monday.

The head of the parliamentary commission also said the EU restrictions will not affect the contract for construction of Air Cushion Landing Craft being built for China by the Feodosia-based More plant, Interfax reports.

The EU Council has decided to ban the import of goods from Crimea to the European Uninon, Foreign Minister of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius said.

EU Council will consider "the strategy for non-recognition of Crimea's accession to Russia" on June 23.

In particular, the EU plans to ban the import of wine and other goods from Crimea in connection with sanctions against Russia. However, Crimean wines were not delivered to the European Union.

Earlier, the source from the European Commission said that the EU had no plans to fully ban goods from Crimea, a former Ukrainian region that reunified with Russian in mid-March.

The statement came shortly before the signing of a free trade agreement between Ukraine and the EU scheduled to take place May 27 on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels.

Earlier a source in the European External Action Service said the EU will only allow Ukraine-certified goods from Crimea to its market, TASS reports.