Media: Thousands of foreigners visited Crimea for Russian youth festival
Foreign participants in the regional program of the Russian World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) visited Russian-annexed Sevastopol during the first three days of the festival, the festival’s information portal reported.
“During the first three days of the regional program of the festival, two thousand foreign participants visited Vladivostok, Sevastopol, Yekaterinburg, Makhachkala, Orenburg and other cities,” the report states.
The information portal mentioned one foreign participant who allegedly visited Sevastopol – the young man Ilias from Greece.
“I have always wanted to visit this city and Crimea in general, because there is a piece of Greek history there,” TASS cites the Greek youth as saying.
According to Krym.Realii’s estimates, nearly $3 000 from the Russian budget was spent on one forum participant. Overall, the Russian organizers spent 4.5 billion rubles ($80 million USD) on preparation for the event, and announced 20 000 participants from 183 countries.
Representatives of unrecognized territories were invited to the festival, notably: Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, DPR, LPR, and annexed Crimea.
The Ukrainian consulates in Rostov-on-Don, Moldova and Turkey urged WFYS participants and delegates not to visit Crimea as part of the event.
At the festival, youths in Sochi tried to legitimize the Russian annexation of Crimea. Sergey Aksyonov, head of the Kremlin-controlled Crimean government, posted on Facebook on October 15 that “the festival has important political significance for Crimea”.
Sevastopol reported that 50 foreign WFYS participants visited the city.
The Russian World Festival of Youth and Students was held between October 14 and 21 in Sochi.