IMF counts Crimea as part of Russia
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just released its Autumn Economic Outlook for the Eurozone, which includes economic indicators for the Russian Crimea region, although it does not officially recognize this territory as part of Russia.
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| Vehicles moving across the Crimea bridge. Photo: Reuters |
The map shown in the document depicts the peninsula as part of Ukraine but is marked in grey-blue. Russia is illustrated in dark yellow.
At the same time, the experts who prepared the report emphasized that "from the IMF's side, any colored borders and any other information indicated on the map do not mean the determination of the legal status of the territory or its recognition and acceptance as a border." However, "statistics on Crimea and the city of Sevastopol are counted as part of the data on Russia" and are not included in the information section on the Ukrainian economy.
"For statistical purposes, a country that actually administers a certain territory must report data on that territory. The use of IMF statistics does not imply that the organization recognizes or accepts a position on whether a country has legal rights to a particular declared territory, if there is an international territorial dispute," - the IMF press spokesman stated.
