Russian cellular operators will be in Crimea over the coming weeks, said Minister of communications and mass communications Nikolay Nikiforov, speaking at the meeting of the President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with members of the government.

" currently preparedness networks of Russian operators is in the final stage. They are ready to run. We plan to move forward with the launch, when the number of SIM cards in the hands of residents will reach a critical mass. We plan, it will happen in the next few weeks, " Nikiforov said.

He said that on the area of Crimea has begun sale of SIM cards to Russian non-cellular, which starts with a code 7." SIM cards are available in all large retail networks have already sold about 200 thousand SIM cards, and the reserve of SIM cards on the square of the Crimea is about 1, 5 million units, " He said.

" We do not exclude, unfortunately, the possible disruption of communication from the Ukrainian operators has been made a number of official statements from them. Because of this, we recommend the inhabitants of the Crimea as soon as possible to adopt the Russian SIM cards, " said Nikiforov.

Russian operators as long as specifically not present in the Crimea. The largest players in the field are " Kyivstar " (part one holding with Russian " VimpelCom " ) and " daughter " MTS - MTS-Ukraine ". MTS and " Vympelcom " not so long ago abolished the international roaming in the Crimea.

sections: Politics