Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov says he knew he would be banned from entry in Ukraine.
He said this in an interview with Russia's Izvestia newspaper.
"I understood very well that the current security service and the authorities of this sort in Ukraine would declare me persona non grata in Ukraine, I did not expect other reaction," he said.
Luzhkov said that representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) warned him on his arriving in Ukraine that he should refrain from making statement in public on sovereignty over Sevastopol.
"But, all knew my opinion without those statements, as I have made it public more than once as a private person and every time the opinion was discussed animatedly," he said.
That is why Luzhkov had no reasons to conceal his opinions.
"By making the statement on the status of the city I only confirmed once again that I don't change my opinions and views with time," he said.
Thus, Luzhkov's conscious is clean before the community of Sevastopol.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry takes the ban of the Security Service of Ukraine for Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov to enter Ukraine as an unfriendly step.
On May 12, the Security Service of Ukraine banned Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov from entering Ukraine for statements he made in Sevastopol on May 11 during the commemoration of the 225th anniversary of the Russian Black Sea naval fleet.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs hoped that Russian authorities would assess Luzhkov's statements.
In July 2007, Ukraine and Russia cleared the lists of personae non grata.
Press conference entitled “Biofuel production in Ukraine: what projects to develop and what to forget about”
