Putin revealed the details of the secret plan for the annexation of the Crimea

Almost a year after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, which was not recognized by the world community, Russian television prepared a film about last year’s events. It contains for the first time the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin that he gave the order to “start work on the return of Crimea” immediately after former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was taken to Russia.

“I invited the heads of our special services and the Ministry of Defense to the Kremlin, set them the task of saving the life of the President of Ukraine, he would have simply been destroyed,” Putin says in Andrei Kondrashov’s film “Crimea. The way home" minute trailer which has been shown on the Rossiya 1 TV channel since Sunday.

“Large-caliber machine guns were placed there so as not to talk for a long time. We prepared to take it out directly from Donetsk, by land, sea and air. It was on the night of 22 to 23 [February], we finished at about 7 o’clock in the morning and, as we parted, I told all my colleagues: “We are forced to begin work on returning Crimea to Russia,” Putin says.

According to the results of a referendum held in Crimea on March 16, residents of the peninsula, in the company of Russian military personnel, spoke in favor of “joining Russia.”

On March 18, Crimea and Sevastopol were incorporated into Russia as subjects of the federation.

A month later, Putin admitted during a “direct line” that the referendum in Crimea was held with the participation of the Russian military. According to Putin, they “stood behind the Crimean self-defense forces” to “help people express their opinions.” Before these words from Putin, Russian authorities denied the presence of Russian military personnel on Ukrainian territory, saying that people in uniform without identification marks were volunteers from among the Crimean residents.

The annexation of Crimea by Russia was not recognized by the world community, Ukraine considers the peninsula its territory occupied by Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an address to the Federal Assembly, said that Crimea has “sacred significance” for Russia, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in an interview with Russian television channels, called the peninsula “our history, destiny and pain.”

The very fact of holding a referendum in Western countries is considered a violation of international agreements by Russia.

In response to accusations of illegitimacy of voting on the territory of a foreign state, Putin declared that holding a referendum in Crimea complies with international law and the UN Charter.

"Green Rocket of Aggression"

In Kyiv, Putin’s statements were called “a rare case of manifestation of sincerity,” drawing attention to the date indicated in the television product—February 22.

Former head of the presidential administration of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Popular Front party Sergei Pashinsky believes that the Russian president’s plan to annex part of Ukrainian territory was not a secret and initially looked more threatening.

“The first stage is Crimea, the second is from Kharkov to Odessa. Thank God, we managed to localize this plan in Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, because in principle Putin was preparing to annex half of Ukraine,” Pashinsky told the BBC Ukrainian Service.

He believes that the project of dismembering Ukraine was discussed even earlier: according to him, the plan for the annexation of Crimea was launched when Viktor Yanukovych came to power in 2010, and the flight of the ex-president only gave Putin a reason to “launch a green missile of aggression against Ukraine.”

Ukrainian political analyst Vadim Karasev believes that in any case Moscow would have gone to annex Crimea, regardless of political events in Kiev.

“This statement indicates that the return of Crimea was a reaction to the so-called coup in Kyiv, which was “modeled” and “moderated” by the United States. This is a symmetrical response to Obama,” the expert told the BBC Ukrainian Service.

Karasev is convinced that the timing for showing the film was not chosen by Russia 1 by chance and coincides with the peak of the anti-American rhetoric of the Russian leadership.

“The cards are opening. Russia has chosen the ideology of anti-Americanism in foreign and domestic policy. Today there is no need to look for euphemisms, linguistic constructions that obscure the matter more than they reveal,” adds the political scientist.

Kiev-Crimea-Russia

February 22 is one year old since the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine 328 supported the resolution on the removal of Viktor Yanukovych from the post of the President of the country with votes.

A day earlier, Yanukovych signed an agreement with the opposition to resolve the political crisis in Ukraine, which provided for the restoration of the Constitution of 2004, the formation of a new government and the beginning of constitutional reform.

But on the night of February 22, Yanukovych fled to Kharkov, where he made a statement about the coup in Kiev, said he refused to resign and considered the recent decisions of the Rada illegitimate. Yanukovych left Kharkov for Donetsk, but the Ukrainian border guards did not release the ex-president due to the lack of documents. As Yanukovych later said, he left Donetsk for the Crimea.

He promised to remain on the territory of Ukraine, but the next time he appeared in public in Russia, in Rostov-on-Don.

According to the Ukrainian constitution, the president loses his post as a result of impeachment. Ukrainian and Western lawyers have repeatedly called the existing impeachment procedure practically impossible to implement.

In January of this year, Interpol, at the request of the Ukrainian authorities, put Yanukovych on the wanted list.

As reported on the Interpol website, Yanukovych is wanted by the Ukrainian authorities on charges of misappropriation and embezzlement of property through abuses committed on a large scale or by an organized group.

Price of annexation

The annexation of the Crimea in March launched a whole series of sanctions restrictions on Russia from Europe, the United States and other Western countries.

The sanctions of a number of Western countries, Japan and Australia against Russia were introduced in several stages since March of this year, when Russian authorities annexed the Crimean peninsula after an unrecognized referendum.

Western sanctions have closed Russian banks and state-owned companies access to capital markets to attract foreign funds.

In addition, oil revenues have sharply decreased—oil prices fell by almost half in the last months of 2014.

Since then, the ruble has fallen by more than 40% against the dollar and the euro. In December last year, the World Bank worsened the forecast of the state of the Russian economy for the 2015-16 years. Instead of stagnation, bank experts now predicted a recession as the most likely scenario for 2015 year.

As First Deputy Russian Minister of Finance Tatyana Nesterenko said in an interview with Forbes Woman, the economic bloc did not take part in the preparation of the “annexation of Crimea,” since only the president can make decisions on such issues.

“If we talk about whether the Ministry of Finance asked how much it would cost, I can say: no, they didn’t ask. But to answer the question whether the price is adequate or not, you need to know a lot,” the magazine quotes Nesterenko.

In August, the Russian government approved a federal targeted development program for the Crimea and Sevastopol up to 2020, with a total amount of 680 billion rubles (11,5 billion dollars).

Following the Crimean annexation, unrest began in the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine, which developed into an open conflict with the new authorities of Ukraine, which replaced Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukraine and Western countries accused Russia of provoking riots, and then of financing and supporting the separatists. Moscow denies the charges.