Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak hopes to visit Crimea before the election, and there will be no campaigning during her visit, Sobchak’s press secretary Ksenia Chudinova said.
“We would like [the visit to take place] before the election,” Chudinova told Interfax.
There will be no campaigning during the visit, she said. “We would like to meet with Crimean Tatars and residents of Crimea to understand their problems, to hear them,” Sobchak’s press secretary said.
A request for permission to visit the peninsula was sent to the Ukrainian embassy on February 28, she said.
Sobchak said earlier that she had filed a request with the Ukrainian embassy for permission to visit Crimea.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimenko has already responded to Sobchak’s request.
“They keep asking me about Sobchak and occupied Crimea as if there are no other topics. It is, of course, a positive thing to observe Ukrainian legislation on entering occupied Crimea. But lawful entry to conduct an illegitimate campaign in an illegitimate election in occupied territory is clearly schizophrenia. Political, of course,” the minister wrote on Twitter on March 7.
Klimkin also said that in order to talk to Crimean Tatars, one needs to come to Kyiv to meet with Mejlis representatives. The Mejlis is banned in Russia’s Crimea, he said.
