"I usually keep my promises, and that is why I will spend the last week of July in Crimea. I promised my friend [CIS and Russian Diaspora Relations State Duma Committee head] Leonid Slutsky that I will spend [the Russian] Navy Day in Sevastopol…Last year, ten members of parliament came with me, this year, 36 lower and upper house lawmakers are asking to take them with me," Mariani said during a Moscow-Paris teleconference at the Rossiya Segodnya international news agency.
In July 2015, a group of French lawmakers, headed by Mariani, visited Crimea, reporting afterward that the Black Sea peninsula residents, who are predominantly ethnically-Russian, appear to be happy to have the autonomous republic rejoin with Russia. The lawmakers said what they saw in Crimea was completely different from what Western media portrayed.
Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which has a special status within the region, became subjects of Russia on March 21, 2014, after more than 96 percent of Crimean voters backed the motion to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia in a referendum.
