Crimea Calls on EU to Stop Violating Helsinki Accords Ensuring Free Movement

Sputnik News

17:11 17.08.2016

The European Union must stop violating the Helsinki accords by preventing Crimean people from meeting their relatives, who live in the EU countries, Georgy Muradov, Crimea's permanent representative with the Russian president, said on Wednesday.

SIMFEROPOL (Sputnik) – The Helsinki Final Act was signed by 35 countries in August 1975, in an attempt to improve relations between the then-communist bloc, comprising the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact. The humanitarian part of the Helsinki accords includes states' obligations to ensure people's rights to free movement, exchange of information, education, cultural contacts, medical care and others.

"I want to call on the European Union to stop violating the Helsinki Final Act and not to block family ties of our Crimean communities with their fellow citizens, who are living abroad. They are not granting visas, they are impeding communication between relatives – that is a direct violation of the Helsinki Final Act. That refers to Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and many other EU states," Muradov said at a press conference in the Crimean office of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

Crimea became part of Russia after almost 97 percent of those who voted in a local referendum on the issue in 2014 supported the move. Ukraine did not recognize the outcomes of the referendum in Crimea and accused Russia of annexation.

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