In Moscow, they reported that the Russian Hermitage had prepared a draft addition to the list of UNESCO heritage sites, which included the Southern Coast of Crimea.

These actions are presented in the Russian media as an ordinary routine work - they say, another important part of the Russian cultural heritage should become a protected area of ??UNESCO.. And the South Coast of Crimea deserves such recognition no less than the historical ensemble of St. Petersburg, already included in the list of world heritage.

All this is of course wonderful. But St. Petersburg is Russia.. And the South Coast of Crimea is the occupied and subsequently annexed territory of Ukraine. And he has no chances to get on the list of Russian heritage.

We can not say that in Moscow do not know about it. Know. After the annexation of the Crimea, UNESCO was forced to cease contacts with the museum complex in Chersonese, which, by the way, enabled the Russian authorities to proceed to a systematic violation of the status of the reserve as a UNESCO cultural heritage site.. The procedure for granting the status of such objects to the Khan Palace in Bakhchisarai and the Vorontsov Palace in Bolshoi Yalta, initiated even before the annexation was frozen.

And these are absolutely logical actions.. Crimea, in terms of international law, is Ukrainian territory in which a sovereign country does not exercise control due to occupation by another state. And not a single object of its cultural heritage can be added to the lists.. How it is impossible to control the state of already introduced objects - because Ukraine should be responsible for this control. And she simply has no such opportunity.. And nothing unusual, nothing “Russophobic” - as Russian propagandists are shouting about - there is no UNESCO in this approach. Famous sights in the northern part of Cyprus are not included in the UNESCO lists either.. For the same simple reason. From the point of view of international law, the north of Cyprus is the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, which does not exercise control over it.. So, no UNESCO.

Then why does Russia arrange a performance, and with the participation of the Hermitage? Why offer something that is doomed to failure?.

In this, in my opinion, there is no error. And there is propaganda, calculated mainly on the Russians themselves and the population of the occupied territories. They need to be convinced that the Crimea is the same territory of Russia as Moscow or Voronezh. What about the Crimea, you can contact international organizations, even if Russian applications will be rejected. Because refusal to consider such applications is a problem of international organizations, not Russia..

But in this propaganda logic everything is turned upside down. The non-recognition of Crimea by a part of the Russian Federation, the impossibility of the normal development of the territory due to the Russian occupation of the peninsula is not a problem of UNESCO or any other organization. This, as we see, is Russia's problem.. And, above all, the problem of the Crimea itself, from which the occupier seems to have selected the future. And the inhabitants of the peninsula, and its cultural heritage, too.

Original.