French lawmaker compares Crimea to southern France where 'everything is normal'

The situation in Crimea is completely normal and the Black Sea peninsula resembles southern France, deputy of the French National Assembly from the Republican Party and Co-Chairman of the Franco-Russian Dialog association Thierry Mariani said on Saturday.

The French lawmaker made this statement after a delegation of French MPs and senators completed their two-day visit to Crimea. Mariani rejected the western media’s allegations of the delegation’s one-sided and incompetent nature.

"I’m sure that these 10 persons comprising our delegation are very experienced deputies and senators. These are people who have been deputies and senators for 10 and 20 years," Mariani said. "Among them, there are persons who represent the French opposition. So, actually all the trends of the French political thought are represented," he added.

"The first question is why we came to Crimea at all. This is my third visit to Russia and the main goal is to maintain contacts between parliamentarians," the deputy said. "Of course, two days were not enough but are sufficient to feel what is happening locally," he added.

"There is nothing special in Crimea, which merits attention in the sense that everything is perfectly normal there," the French deputy said.

"Of course, it can’t be said that everything is nice and there are no problems. We saw ordinary people who in their overwhelming majority are glad that they have returned to Russia. There are no people in military uniforms there. Crimea looks like the south of France," the French deputy said.