"Undoubtedly, international business contacts are expanding every year. Now they are gaining a wider scope and more and more governmental, and parliamentary structures of various countries are making decisions that essentially acknowledge the fact that the Crimeans legitimately expressed their will and the referendum was fair, and that no one can ignore the will of the people," Muradov said.
According to him, awareness within the international community is growing with regard to the fact that the Crimeans definitively and irrevocably expressed their with their decision to reunite with the historical homeland.
"This is the main understanding in the world that is growing stronger. This is the goal of our international contacts, so that everyone understands the full legitimacy of the Crimean referendum," the deputy prime minister stressed.
Crimea rejoined Russia in the spring of 2014 when about 97 percent of Crimean voters and over 95 percent of Sevastopol residents voted in favor of reunification in a referendum, after a coup in Ukraine in February of the same year.
Despite the referendum results, Ukraine still considers Crimea to be occupied territory, and the West condemned the reunification, imposing several rounds of sanctions against Russia.
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