Russian State Duma speaker blames Ukraine for 'peaceful annexation' of Crimea


Sergei Naryshkin, Speaker of the Russian State Duma, has accused Ukraine of its ‘annexation’ of Crimea more that 20 years ago. He made the statement on Thursday, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.

According to Naryshkin, since 1991, i.e., since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea has been ‘peacefully annexed’ by Ukraine. At the same time, he says, the people who lived there all the time felt as they were in exile and dreamt of ‘returning home’.

In March 2014, after protests in Simferopol, Sevastopol and other cities of Crimea, Russian special forces occupied the key objects of the peninsula without any fight. Soon after that, a referendum was held: the vast majority of the population were in favour of the accession to Russia.

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