Putin Merges Crimea into Russia's Southern District
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russian President Vladimir Putin consolidated the country's Southern and Crimean federal districts into the united Southern Federal District, shuffling and replacing several governors, local representatives and one ambassador.
The newly formed, reorganized district will be led by former justice minister and former prosecutor general, Vladimir Ustinov, the Tass news agency reported.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the main goal of the reshuffling was to improve the administration of the state.
"This is not related to a staff reshuffle in the (Federal Security Service) and it is not directly related to the (September) elections. This is just a normal rotational work connected in part with the necessity to boost effectiveness and, in some cases, with making corrections in places where the rates of development could be better. This is an ordinary rotation," Peskov said.
Crimea declared independence from Ukraine on March 17, 2014 and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum a day earlier.
Moscow defends Crimea’s reunification with Russia as legitimate, saying more than 90 percent of the people in the Black Sea peninsula voted in favor of rejoining the country in the 2014 vote.
After Crimea’s reunification with Russia, violence intensified in eastern Ukraine in April 2014, when Kiev deployed troops to the eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk against pro-Russians.
Two ceasefire deals have been signed between Kiev and pro-Russians, but the shaky agreements have failed to contain the deadly violence, which has reportedly killed over 9,000 people.
The Ukraine crisis and Crimea’s reunion with Russia have plunged Kremlin’s relations with the West to their lowest point since the Cold War.
Since then, the US and some other Western countries have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia over its alleged role in the crisis, which the Kremlin denies.
