Crimean Head Invites Serbian Lawmaker, Businessmen to Yalta Economic Forum

SIMFEROPOL (Sputnik) — Aksyonov had a meeting with Popovich last week. In March 2014, the founder of the Serbian People's Party had monitored the election process during the Crimean referendum as an international observer.

"I invited Nenad Popovic as well as Serbian businessmen to participate in the Yalta International Economic Forum in April," Aksyonov wrote on Facebook.

The YIEF is a major annual economic and business event that will be carried out for its third time in Crimea on April 20-22. Last year’s forum was attended by over 1,000 people from 26 countries. On the event's sidelines, 12 investment agreements amounting to 70 billion Russian rubles ($1.2 billion) were concluded.

On Saturday, Crimea celebrated the third anniversary of the reunification with Russia. The region rejoined Russia in March 2014 after the referendum held on March 16, with almost 97 percent of the residents having voted for the reunification. Ukraine still considers Crimea as an occupied territory. Though the move was not recognized by Western countries, including the European Union and the United States, over 60 delegations from dozens of countries including Turkey, France and Italy, visited Crimea last year to discuss cooperation.