"We are here today and we will be going back year after year until we are sure that the situation in Crimea is normal and also in order to inform the international community about true life in Crimea," Mariani told journalists upon arrival to Simferopol in Crimea.
In July 2015, a group of 10 French lawmakers visited Crimea for the first time despite domestic and European criticism. The lawmakers said at the time that what they had seen in the region was completely different from how it was usually portrayed in Western media.
Russia's historical southern region of Crimea rejoined Russia after a 2014 referendum, which showed that 96 percent of the population was supportive of the move. Kiev and its Western allies called it an annexation and imposed sanctions on the peninsula.
