“Delegates from China came to gauge the peninsula’s tourism potential,” Crimea’s Tourism Ministry reported on its website on March 11, promoting a visit by a supposed Chinese delegation that Russian news outlets have described as both “official” and “representative.” The pro-Kremlin media has touted the trip as a sign of the new prospects for Crimea-Chinese economic cooperation, but almost no one in Beijing has even heard about the visit. That’s probably because the three delegation members were actually businessmen from wholesale markets in Moscow, not China.
Meduza: ‘China’s delegates’ in Crimea were businessmen from Moscow
Performers wave Russian flags while celebrating the seventh anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea in Saint Petersburg on March 18, 2021.
