Kiev condemns Berlusconi visit to Crimea (3)

(ANSA) - Moscow, September 14 - Kiev on Monday condemned the recent two-day visit to Crimea by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it was a bid to legitimise the occupation of the peninsula.
    In a statement, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said the September 11-12 visit broke Ukrainian norms on entry into "temporarily occupied territory", adding that the visit "also contradicts EU policy" on the peninsula that Moscow annexed last year. Berlusconi met his old friend Putin at Sevastopol on Friday and laid a wreath at a monument for Italian dead in the Crimean War.
    The following day he enjoyed walks with Putin along the banks of the Black Sea.
    In its statement, the foreign ministry said: "This visit to occupied Crimea is a fresh attempt by the Russian federation to legtimise at all costs the illegal occupation and a demonstration of lack of respect for the state sovereignty of Ukraine". Russian media featured Putin and Berlusconi's visit prominently.
    The leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party was the first former European premier to visit Crimea since Moscow's annexation, which sparked the first package of western sanctions against Russia and created a new cold-war climate.
    Previously the only leading western politician to set foot in Crimea were, in October, Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-euro, anti-immigrant Northern League, and, in July, former French transport minister Thierry Mariani.
    The latter and his delegation ended up on Kiev's blacklist and were banned from Ukraine for three years.