The speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament has proposed the creation of a Russian "Silicon Valley" on the Moscow-annexed peninsula of Crimea.
Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko said at a session devoted to Russia's regions that the project could be implemented "taking into account the business experience of Russia's regions."
Matviyenko said "it is necessary" to work on the creation of some kind of a Crimean Silicon Valley that would house "facilities producing microelectronic and communication devices" similar to the area in California that headquarters most of the world's major technology companies.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine one year ago after deploying Russian troops across the peninsula and conducting a referendum that has been condemned around the world as a violation of Ukrainian and international law.
In 2009, Russia announced plans to build the Skolkovo Innovation Center near Moscow as Russia's future Silicon Valley.
Then-President Dmitry Medvedev said at the time the site would be a highly modern complex created to encourage science and technology companies.
