Crimea’s ports, which are not operating at full capacity due to the fear of ship-owners incurring fines from Ukraine and western sanctions, are considering the possibility of working with Iran as well as Syria, Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Georgy Muradov announced.
“Our ports are barely loaded and so we are working on a Syrian and Iranian direction, so that ships carrying numerous loads will be able to travel to these countries, which do not impose constraints,” Muradov said at a press conference in Simferopol on Tuesday.
In his opinion, Russia “certainly needs to sort out the international register which placed a ban on the Crimean ports”.
“This can probably be dealt with legally through judicial and other procedures,” Muradov was quoted as saying by UAWire.org.
He added that shipping companies are “very interested” in coming to Crimea.
The state unitary enterprise Crimean Sea Ports, created by the Crimean Parliament in 2014, is managed by the Crimean minister of transport, and has eight branches: Kerch Trade Port, Kerch Fish Port, Feodosia Trade Port, Yalta Trade Port, Yevpatoria Trade Port, Kerch Ferry Crossing, Gosgidrographia and Port-Terminal.
Crimea is a peninsula on the northern coast of Black Sea in Eastern Europe. In March 2014, following the Ukrainian revolution, a referendum was held on the issue of Crimea’s “reunification” with Russia after the peninsula broke apart from Russia in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union; the official result was that a large majority of Crimeans wished to join Russia.
Russia then annexed Crimea to incorporate the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol as federal subjects of Russia. While Russia and 10 other UN member states recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, Ukraine continues to claim Crimea as an integral part of its territory, supported by most foreign governments and a United Nations General Assembly resolution.
Following Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the United States, Canada, the European Union and other European countries (including Ukraine) imposed economic sanctions specifically targeting Crimea. Sanctions prohibit the sale, supply, transfer, or export of goods and technology in several sectors, including services directly related to tourism and infrastructure. They list seven ports where cruise ships cannot dock. Sanctions against Crimean individuals include travel bans and asset freezes. Visa and MasterCard have stopped service in Crimea between December 2014 and April 2015.
Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani has said Tehran would “remain neutral” on the issue of Crimea’s annexation to Russia but criticized the West for not accepting the results of the Crimean referendum.
