If only a member of the White House press corps would ask Trump about this.
Georgy Muradov, the deputy prime minister of Crimea’s Russian-backed government, said Crimea is “sending signals” of cooperation to Iran “given the anti-Iranian policy of the United States.”
“For example, Iran could use our port facilities to transport oil,” Muradov told the state-run TASS news agency.
“Iran can take advantage of our shipping opportunities and river-sea canals, transporting oil over the Volga-Don canal, via Crimea, to the Black Sea,” Muradov said in an interview published last Tuesday.
Cry me a Don River.
Russia has offered to help Iran to skirt US sanctions by allowing it to transport crude oil through ports in Crimea, in a further sign of growing ties between Moscow and Tehran.
Iran has previously sent oil deliveries to Syria and Turkey through the Suez Canal. That route has become problematic, according to Iran and Syria, since President Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal with Tehran and imposed economic sanctions.
Countries that purchase Iranian oil or assist its shipment risk US economic penalties. A tanker carrying Iranian oil to Syria was detained last month by the Egyptian authorities as it travelled through the Suez Canal, according to Iranian state media. Cairo denied the reports and insisted that the waterway remained open to Iranian vessels.
www.thetimes.co.uk/...
Some argue that Putin's annexation of Crimea is an attempt to return Russia to the glory of its pre-Soviet days, " as one of the world's greatest civilizations." As of May 2019, the United Nations still maps Crimea as belonging to Ukraine.