Ukraine puts U.S. boxer Jones Jr. on database of border violators
KYIV. Aug 21 (Interfax) - U.S. professional boxer Roy Levesta Jones Jr. has been put on the Peacemaker database of the center of research of signs of crimes against Ukraine's national security, peace, the security of humankind and international law and order as a border violator after visiting Crimea, says Anton Herashchenko, a Ukrainian parliamentarian of the Popular Front faction and an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister.
Herashchenko also said on Facebook that he had forwarded a parliamentary inquiry to the Ukrainian Security Service chief on opening criminal proceedings against Roy Jones Jr., a U.S. citizen, under Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 332-1, for violating the rules of entering and exiting temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory.
Herashchenko pointed out that several members of the French Senate and National Assembly who visited Crimea had earlier been put on the Peacekeeper database as border violators.
"I am informing all Russian and foreign citizens who have visited or are planning to visit the temporarily occupied Crimea for tourism or business purposes that a visit to Crimea without passing Ukrainian border control and obtaining permission from Ukrainian authorities constitutes a violation of Ukrainian criminal law. Any mentioning of such trips in social networks or on news websites is carefully monitored by Peacekeeper center specialists to further put Russian and foreign citizens on the center's databases so that this information be used by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in their work," Herashchenko said.
In Soviet times, the Crimean region, earlier belonging to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in February 1954 under a Soviet Supreme Council Presidium decree. After the Soviet Union broke up and Ukraine declared its independence in 1991, Crimea remained part of Ukraine. In March 2014, after government changed in Ukraine, a referendum was conducted in Crimea, in which an overwhelming majority of its residents voted for its inclusion in the Russian Federation. After that, Crimea became part of Russia, although Ukraine still considers it part of its territory.
Roy Jones Jr. is a world boxing champion in several divisions and the holder of the BWAA Fighter of the Decade award in the 1990s. He has arrived in Crimea to support Russian boxers who will take part in an international boxing show on August 23. He has submitted an application for Russian citizenship, intending at the same time to retain U.S. citizenship.