Finnish Railway Company Withdraws Magazines With Crimea Ad - Reports

VR, or the Finnish State Railways, has withdrawn its magazine that contained advertisements promoting holidays in Russia's southwestern Crimean Peninsula, local media reported Thursday.

MOSCOW, April 6 (Sputnik) — The VR Group has withdrawn from circulation the magazines distributed in the railway's Allegro trains, which travel between Russia and Finland, as an ad campaign entitled "Back to Crimea!" was published within its pages, according to the Yle broadcaster.

The news outlet added that the advert included information on how to travel to the peninsula "via rail, sea and highway" in three languages: English, Finnish and Russian.

Финны из-за рекламы турпоездок в Крым изымают тираж журнала «Allegro» https://t.co/JtVyjlw0X1 #Финляндия #Новости

— Финляндия (@Finljandija) 6 апреля 2017 г.

​The Finns withdraw the circulation of the "Allegro" magazine due to the ad of tours to Crimea

The Crimean Peninsula seceded from Ukraine and reunified with Russia after the 2014 referendum. In the course of the referendum, more than 96 percent of Crimean residents, as well as over 95 percent of the residents of the Sevastopol city voted to rejoin Russia.

Ukraine, as well as a vast number of western countries, including Finland, have not recognized the legitimacy of the vote and have imposed several rounds of anti-Moscow sanctions in response. However, Russia's leadership, including President Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly said that the Crimean residents had made their decision and the issue of the peninsula's territorial belonging was closed.