Putin speech just hours after bill to annex Crimea
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WITH a historic sweep of his pen, President Vladimir Putin yesterday signed a treaty to take Crimea, describing the move as correcting past injustice and a necessary response to Western encroachment upon Russia’s vital interests.
In an emotional 40-minute speech that was televised live from the Kremlin, Putin said “in people’s hearts and minds, Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia.”
He dismissed Western criticism of Sunday’s referendum — in which residents of the strategic Black Sea peninsula overwhelmingly backed breaking off from Ukraine and joining Russia — as a manifestation of the West’s double standards.
At the same time, the Russian leader said his nation didn’t want to move into other regions of Ukraine, saying “we don’t want division of Ukraine.”
Putin argued that months of protests in Kiev that prompted President Viktor Yanukovych to flee to Russia had been instigated by the West to weaken Russia.
He cast the new Ukrainian government as illegitimate, driven by radical “nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites.”
Following the speech before lawmakers and top officials, Putin and Crimean officials signed a treaty for the region to join Russia.
The treaty will have to be endorsed by Russia’s Constitutional Court and ratified by both houses of parliament, but that is expected to be completed by the end of the week.
Putin’s speech came just hours after he approved a draft bill for the annexation of Crimea, a key move in a flurry of steps to formally take over the Black Sea peninsula.
To back his claim that Crimea’s vote was in line with international law, Putin pointed to Kosovo’s independence bid from Serbia — supported by the West and opposed by Russia — and said that Crimea’s secession from Ukraine repeats Ukraine’s own secession from the Soviet Union in 1991.
He denied Western accusations that Russia invaded Crimea prior to the referendum, saying Russian troops were sent there in line with a treaty with Ukraine that allows Russia to have up to 25,000 troops at its Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea.
Crimea had been part of Russia since the 18th century until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine in 1954. Both Russians and Crimea’s majority ethnic Russian population see annexation as correcting a historic insult.
On Monday, the United States and the European Union announced asset freezes and other sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials.
In his speech, Putin made it clear that Russia wouldn’t be deterred by Western sanctions.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev hailed Crimea’s vote as a “happy event.” Online newspaper Slon.ru quoted him as saying that Crimea’s vote offered residents the freedom of choice and showed that “people really wanted to return to Russia.”
Gorbachev added that the referendum set an example for people in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking eastern region, who he said also should decide their fate.
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