Ukraine has said that Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak’s request to legally travel to the annexed Crimean peninsula was "positive" but amounted to political “schizophrenia.”
Sobchak, who has maintained that Russian-held Crimea belongs to Ukraine according to international law, said Tuesday that she had asked Kiev authorities for permission to legally visit the annexed peninsula through Ukrainian territory.
“Adhering to Ukrainian law to enter occupied Crimea is, of course, a positive [step],” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted on Wednesday.
“But legal entry to conduct an illegitimate campaign in illegitimate elections on occupied territory — that’s definitely schizophrenia. Of course, politically,” Klimkin wrote.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow has said that it has not yet received Sobchak’s entry request, the UNIAN news agency reported Tuesday.
State-run polling indicates Sobchak is expected to receive 1 percent of votes in the March 18 presidential elections.
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