The Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky suggested that U.S. government representatives planning to attend the Russophobic “Crimean Platform” summit being organized by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev, would do better to actually visit Crimea, see the new Kerch Strait bridge that Russia built, and cooperate on such matters.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will reportedly represent the U.S. at the “Crimean Platform” meeting. Said Slutsky: “I don’t exclude that they were drawing straws at the White House when deciding whom to send to Ukraine.… Earlier, the Russian side has already commented on the provocative nature of the Crimean Platform. Crimea is a territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of Crimeans and residents of Sevastopol. The issue is closed! Any talk of ‘de-occupation’ will be perceived as an attack on Russia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the lawmaker emphasized.