The State Duma instructed Google to designate Crimea in accordance with Russian laws. This was announced on Friday, April 16, by the head of the commission to investigate the facts of foreign interference in the internal affairs of Russia, Vasily Piskarev, following the results of a teleconference with the management of Google.
“We insist that Crimea should be designated on the Russian version of the Google Maps service not under the neutral name“ Crimea Peninsula, ”but under a name consistent with the Constitution and legislation of the Russian Federation -“ Republic of Crimea, ”he said.
In addition, the deputies called on Google to correctly indicate the islands of the Great Kuril ridge in the Pacific Ocean as the territory of Russia.
“We showed that in Italy, for example, all the islands are listed as prescribed in the Italian constitution, while this has not been done in Russia,” Piskarev told the DumaTV channel.
He noted that Google representatives agreed with the arguments given by the State Duma deputies and promised to work out this issue.
Piskarev clarified that a new meeting with representatives of the company is scheduled for October. On it, Google should provide the results of the work done on the comments made by the Russian side.
During a teleconference with the State Duma deputies, representatives of Google also expressed their readiness to continue working in the Russian legal field. As Piskarev clarified, the company does not plan to lose its audience on YouTube, which reaches approximately 80 million daily visits.
Crimea became part of Russia following a referendum in 2014. At that time, 96.77% of the inhabitants of the peninsula and 95.6% of the voters of Sevastopol were in favor of joining. Ukraine and a number of other states do not recognize the voting results. Kiev considers Crimea to be its territory. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the residents of Crimea, in accordance with international law, voted for reunification with the Russian Federation. According to the Russian leader, the issue of Crimea is “finally closed.”