Personal Envoy of the Swiss OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Ukraine Tim Guldimann has reported that he had no chance to meet with Sergei Aksionov, who has been proclaimed as Crimean Prime Minister by the autonomy's Supreme Council.
“We tried to meet with Mr. Aksionov, but we didn’t,” he told the journalists in Kyiv on Thursday.
The OSCE special envoy and OSCE High Commissioner on National
Minorities Astrid Thors worked in Crimea on Thursday, and on Thursday
returned to Kyiv, cutting their visit to the peninsula short for
security reasons.
He said that the situation in the region is tense, and the number of armed people of the so-called self-defense is growing.
Besides, the OSCE representatives faced problems with transport that
was ordered from Moldova, but couldn’t traverse a checkpoint at the
entrance to Crimea.
Guldimann reported that he met with the representatives of the
Crimean parliament, as well as with the Russian consul, who said that a
conflict appeared because of the cancellation of the language law, and a
threat to Russian Black Sea Fleet. In view of the mentioned-above, new
Crimean government choose a policy of strengthening Crimea’s autonomy,
he said.
What’s more, new Crimean parliament still calls Viktor Yanukovych Ukraine’s president, Guldimann said.
However, the opposite point of view also exists in Crimea, according
to which people doubt the legality of decisions taken by the Crimean
parliament, the OSCE envoy added.
