MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov's view on Sevastopol's status, which he expressed in his recent statements, is shared by most Russians and does not question Ukraine's sovereignty, Luzhkov's press service said.

"Luzhkov, as one of the leaders of a major Russian political party, United Russia, and as a Russian political figure, is absolutely entitled to express his opinion on political issues, which, by the way, coincides with the opinion of most Russians, who painfully took the USSR's breakup," the service said in a Tuesday statement.

"This absolutely does not encroach on Ukraine's sovereignty. This is just a way to bring up issues that came to the fore because of the Ukrainian leadership's policy of leading the country toward joining NATO without regarding the Ukrainian people's opinion, toward confrontation with Russia on any pretext, toward revising the two brotherly peoples' common glorious history, and making heroes out of those who opposed friendship and unity between our peoples," it said.

Civilized countries do not bar politicians from other countries from visiting them based on their views on how to settle issues of difference and do not declare them personae non gratae for this, Luzhkov's press service said. "Otherwise, most political figures expressing their countries' interests would not have the right to visit other countries. For instance, few of the Japanese leaders speaking on the problem of the Kuril Islands could visit Russia, Greek politicians would not speak with Turkish ones because of Cyprus and Indian ones with Pakistani ones because of Kashmir, and Ukrainian politicians who champion the country's accession to the military-political block NATO, which Russia does not belong to, could as well be declared personae non gratae in Russia, as their statements go against Article 6 of the Russian-Ukrainian Friendship Treaty of 1997," it said.

According to Luzhkov's press service, Sevastopol was given special status in 1948 as a Soviet naval base directly reporting to the central government and was not included in the Crimean territory that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev handed over to Ukraine in 1954.

"These very historical facts were cited by the Moscow mayor when he talked about Russia's right to resolve such problems based on its national interests and taking into account quite obvious hints by Ukrainian nationalist politicians on the pending shutdown of the Russian naval base in Sevastopol, which was set up and has functioned as a stronghold in Russia's southern borders over its entire history," it said.