Members of the de-facto Federation Council of Crimea Sergei Tsekov and Olga Kovitidi on behalf of the de-facto parliament and government of Crimea have asked to postpone payment of debts on credits taken in Ukrainian banks by Crimea residents for 36 months, the press service of Kovitidi has reported.

"This term should be given that Crimea residents are living in the conditions of water, economic, transport and food blockade for two years and now the energy blockade. The conditions for doing business are every complicated due to these circumstances. Many people were left without jobs, with credits and property used as collateral," the press service said.

Tsekov believes that it is not only unrealistic, but it is also amoral to forward claims against Crimea residents until top-priority infrastructure issues are not resolved (the transport bridge, power supply, water supply and other things).

Senators presented the position of Crimea at a meeting of the working group that discussed proposals to amend the federal law setting the procedure for paying debts of residents of Crimea and Sevastopol to Ukrainian credit organizations. It was approved by the Federation Council in late December 2015.

The law applies to the debt of individuals and individual businessmen to banks which operations were terminated on the peninsula under the decisions of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). Payments will be settled in the Russian rubles.

Crimea's de-facto leader Sergei Aksyonov said that the law requires being amended.

Crimean de-facto Parliament Speaker Vladimir Konstantinov named it ill-timed and expressed discontent with the fact that the document was passed without agreeing it with Crimean residents.