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Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014, leading
to condemnation from Western governments and the imposition of
economic sanctions on Russia. Ukraine and most other countries
have refused to recognize the annexation.
Coca-Cola last month said that the map, which appeared on Dec.
30 on Coca-Cola's page on VKontakte, a Russian social networking
site similar to Facebook, had been changed by an advertising
agency without Coca-Cola's approval.
Georgy Logvinsky, a lawmaker from the party of Prime Minister
Arseny Yatseniuk, quoted an official letter sent to him by the
prosecutors' office, stating that "officials of Coca-Сola
company and Pepsico abused their powers, which caused
significant damage to Ukraine's interests".
The letter said that the maps were posted on the official
websites of Coca-Cola and Pepsico.
"Officials of Coca-Cola and Pepsi can go to prison. Prosecutors
of Crimea have started criminal proceedings under Part 1 of
Article 364-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," Logvinsky wrote
on Facebook.
This article cited by Logvinsky allows prosecutors to arrest
suspects for up to three months.
The prosecutors' office, Coca-Cola and the Ukrainian office of
Pepsico did not respond immediately to a requests for comment.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Matthias Williams and
David Goodman)
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