Russia dismisses informal UN Security Council meeting on Crimea as provocation

Baku. 19 March. REPORT.AZ/ Moscow believes that the upcoming informal meeting of the UN Security Council on Crimea is a "counterproductive and provocative" event and has no plans of participating in it, Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations has said.

"We presume that this event is counterproductive and provocative. It does not refer to the UN Security Council’s activities. The Russian delegation will not take part in it and, as far as we know, the delegations of several other countries won’t do it either," the mission’s said in an official statement.

The member-states of the UN Security Council are expected to hold the closed-door meeting on Crimea at the initiative of Lithuania at 22:00 Moscow time (1900 GMT) on Thursday.

Report informs referring the information given by the TASS, the meeting is due to be attended by Mustafa Dzhemilev, who is a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, and the former head of the Crimean Tatar community. Dzhemilev is expected to give a press conference prior to the meeting.

The meeting will be held under the so-called "Arria-formula" that will allow the Security Council members to exchange views in a private order with the participation of persons who are not the representatives of the UN member-states. The delegations of the UN Security Council do not have to attend these meetings.