Igor Chernyshev, the deputy chairman of the Federation Council's Social Policy Committee, has complained over the lack of maps in Moscow stores that depict the Crimean Peninsula as part of Russia, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday.
“We recently celebrated on a large scale, with great joy, the second anniversary of the reunification of Crimea with Russia, but the day before yesterday, I tried to find a map that already shows Crimea as Russian, while visiting the Detsky Mir (Children's World) store. There are none of them,” Chernyshev was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
Chernyshev found that some daily planners displayed in Moscow's Dom Knigi bookstore “also contained out of date information.”
The senator has asked when “the transition period” will end and which authorities are responsible for ensuring that books sold in the country “comply with the Russian Constitution.” How much more time is required to correct the situation and when is it possible to withdraw products that contradict the Constitution, Chernyshev asked, RIA Novosti reported.
Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko has asked the Federal Structure and Regional Politics Committee to consider the issue.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 following a referendum that has not been recognized by the majority of the international community.
Last week, Russian lawmakers made claims against world football's governing body FIFA. Communist Duma Deputy Vladimir Rodin asked the government to investigate why the FIFA website was selling shirts with THE 2018 FIFA World Cup logo, including a map of Russian that did not include Crimea.
On March 15, FIFA announced that it had removed the disputed merchandise from the website, the TASS news agency reported.
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