Ukrainian parliament’s decision to rename Simferopol airport legally void

The Ukrainian parliament’s decision to rename Crimea’s Simferopol airport is of no legal force for Russia, the chief of the Russian State Duma’s committee for CIS affairs, Leonid Slutsky, has said.

"It cannot be taken seriously. It is clear to any school student that the Ukrainian parliament’s resolution has no legal force. That’s just another political speculation and populist gesture," he said.

"Of course, we have nothing against heroes of the Great Patriotic War. We respect their memory. But it looks not quite logical: first the Ukrainian parliament outlaws the Victory Banner and Soviet era symbols and then ‘immortalizes" the name of a Soviet hero of that war," he said.

The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday voted for naming the airport of Simferopol, the capital city of Crimea, after a Soviet pilot, twice hero of the Soviet Union, national hero of the Crimean Tatars Amet-Khan Sultan.

The authorities of Crimea and Sevastopol on March 16, 2014 held a referendum on the issue of reunification with Russia. More than 80% of those eligible to vote came to the polls. The idea of re-unification with Russia was supported by 96.7% and 95.6% respectively.

On March 18, a treaty on the admission of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia was concluded on March 18. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed it into law on March 21.

In defiance of the convincing results of the referendum Kiev refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.