Russian President Vladimir Putin visited, on Saturday, the Crimea peninsula on the ninth anniversary of its annexation to his country’s lands, a measure that most countries of the world did not recognize, in the midst of the raging war that his forces are fighting with the Ukrainian army.
A project of high importance
- A spokesman for the Russian presidency, the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, had said earlier that Putin would participate in the opening of a “cultural and historical project” of high importance.
- Putin devoted his agenda Thursday to the situation in Crimea.
- The last visit of the Russian President to Crimea was in 2020.
Russia says it annexed Crimea on the basis of a referendum in which residents supported joining in March 2014.
But Kiev, along with the Western countries, refused to recognize this referendum, saying it was invalid.
The order came following the pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych, stepped down from power in Kiev, following protests that erupted over his refusal to sign a treaty with the European Union.
In the followingmath, what was known at the time as the “green men” took control of the peninsula, and it coincided with demonstrations in Crimea calling for secession from Ukraine.