“Both de facto and de jure, Crimea has long been recognized by the Russian Belarusian side,” RIA Novosti quotes the Savinykh as saying.
He also noted that previously there was no political formalized statement for the Russian media on this matter.
“For us, Crimea ... and a month ago was an integral part of Russia,” Savinykh summed up.
Earlier, the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov said that President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has a long-standing invitation to visit Crimea.
Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum in March 2014, in which a majority of residents voted in favor of reunification with Russia.