“Non-Political” Luzhkov to Visit Crimea Again

After a big delegation of the Crimean Council of Ministers had visited Moscow, it was decided to forge more businesslike and concrete relations between the Russian capital and the Crimean Autonomous Republic. Among other thing, it is planned to hold Days of Moscow in the Crimea on April 27-28, 2001, to be attended by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and boasting an extensive cultural program. During this trip, Mr. Luzhkov is slated to visit Kerch, Sevastopol, and open the Russian Cultural Center in Simferopol. The Crimean and Moscow leadership will install a commemorative sign symbolizing the beginning of the construction of a transport bridge over the Strait of Kerch.

The recent official visit a Crimean Council of Ministers delegation to Moscow brought some significant results. The Crimean delegation led by Serhiy Kunitsyn held talks in the Moscow City Hall and oblast governor’s office as well as visiting the MITT-2001 international tourist fair. The Crimea is supposed to reap dividends from this fair already during the next few months, the Crimean government believes. This time the famous Moscow-based MITT-2001 was attended by representatives of 2200 travel companies from ninety countries. All tour operators consider this exhibition, ranked third most important in the world, as a compass and simultaneously a sort of fashionable salon, where visitors show themselves and look at others, a fair, where they sell and buy things, and make all kinds of deals.

“The official visit began with a call to the Moscow town hall,” Crimean government spokesman Serhiy Vinnyk told The Day. “Yuri Luzhkov and Serhiy Kunitsyn spoke one-on-one. Mr. Kunitsyn said later they talked as engineers, not politicians. The main point was to expand cooperation between the Crimea and Moscow and build a highway-and-railway bridge over the Kerch Strait. Meanwhile, it was decided to begin upgrading existing rail and ferry facilities.”

The Crimean premier also visited the office of Moscow Oblast Governor Boris Gromov. What can also be considered a significant event was the signing of a cooperation agreement between Moscow State University and Tavriya National University. The document was signed by the Moscow and Crimean Rectors Academician Viktor Sadovnichy and Mykola Bahrov. The agreement makes it possible for Crimean students and lecturers to do in-service training at Russia’s oldest university, gives them access to a very rich research base, and makes it possible to invite Moscow University’s leading academics to conduct special courses. In their turn, Moscow history undergraduates, for example, will be able to do archeological fieldwork in the Crimea.