The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to involve the Prosecutor General’s Office in the Scythian Gold case. He stated this at the final press conference. The broadcast was published on the page of the head of the region in Vkontakte.
“I addressed the head of state on this issue and asked to include the General Prosecutor’s Office in this process,” Aksenov said.
He explained that the SOE should participate in the process “in terms of the formation of the defense”. Aksenov added that he sent letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, in which he indicated that “the necessary party in the case should be the state, and not the Crimean museums.”
According to Dmitry Gorbunov, partner of the firm “Rustam Kurmaev and Partners”, the involvement of the Prosecutor General’s Office in the framework of the trial will not entail significant influence.
“The prosecutor’s office can only act as a plenipotentiary representative of the claimant for cultural objects. At the current stage of production, without understanding another justification for the entry of a state body of the Russian Federation, it is difficult to evaluate the course of events in any other way, “he said in an interview with Izvestia.
On October 26, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled that the Allard Pearson Museum should deposit the gold for safekeeping in Ukraine “until the situation stabilizes” on the peninsula. The court emphasized that it did not consider the issue of its ownership, only about the transfer.
Aksenov called the decision of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal inappropriate and outrageous. He stressed that Scythian gold is an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage of Crimea, which means that the exhibits should be returned to the funds of Crimean museums.
As the director of the Central Museum of Tavrida Andrei Malygin emphasized in an interview with Izvestia, the court’s decision is “disgusting and disgusting,” it violates the rights of Crimeans to access their cultural heritage. He also expressed doubt that the exhibits will be safe in Kiev.
In turn, the first deputy head of the international committee of the Federation Council, Vladimir Dzhabarov, called the court’s decision politicized and biased. He pointed out that Scythian gold has always been stored in the Crimea, and wondered where it could be stored in Ukraine.
Director of the East Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum Tatiana Umrikhina announced on November 17 that Russia intends to appeal the court decision.
