Ukraine's National Security
Council on Thursday decided to ban ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi
from the country for three years after he visited Crimea with
Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday, Russian news
agency Interfax reported Thursday.
The visit was made without Kiev's agreement, according to
Interfax.
Ukraine Monday condemned the visit because it broke
Ukrainian norms on entry into "temporarily occupied territory"
and because Berlusconi's visit "also contradicts EU policy" on
the Crimea peninsula, which Moscow annexed last year.
Berlusconi met his old friend Putin at Sevastopol and laid
a wreath at a monument for Italian dead in the Crimean War.
The leader of the centre-right Forza Italia (FI) 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.
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