I/II. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31899680
15 March 2015 Last updated at 18:57 Share this pagePrint ShareFacebookTwitter Ukraine conflict: Putin 'was ready for nuclear alert' Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with the government - 4 February 2015 President Putin says he only acted in Crimea after the government in Kiev was overthrown Continue reading the main story Ukraine crisis How many Russian fighters? Minsk ceasefire Baltic shivers What next? ***President Vladimir Putin has said he was ready to put Russia's nuclear weapons on standby during tensions over the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea.*** [Emphasis added.] In comments in a documentary aired on state TV on Sunday, Mr Putin said the life of ex-Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych had been in danger. He also said Russians in Crimea were in danger before Russia annexed it. In a previously released clip from the film, he said he ordered the annexation weeks before a referendum was held. Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue. The BBC's John Simpson in Crimea: "It's pretty hard to think Russia will ever give this up" Crimea was formally absorbed into Russia on 18 March, to international condemnation, after unidentified gunmen took over the peninsula. The documentary aired amid speculation over Mr Putin's whereabouts with the Russian leader having not been seen in public since 5 March. The Kremlin has denied rumours that the president might be sick or even dead and says Mr Putin will meet his Kyrgyz counterpart, Almazbek Atambayev, on Monday. 'Our historical territory' Speaking on the documentary - called The Path To The Motherland - Mr Putin said: "We never thought about severing Crimea from Ukraine until the moment that these events began, the government overthrow". On putting Russia's nuclear weapons into a state of combat readiness, Mr Putin said: "We were ready to do this." "[Crimea] is our historical territory. Russian people live there. They were in danger. We cannot abandon them," he added. He said he used a "closed opinion poll" of Crimeans to judge whether they wanted to remain in Ukraine and found that "75% of the general population desired to join Russia". No details of how the survey was conducted were given by Mr Putin. Russia initially denied that soldiers who appeared in Crimea without military insignia on their fatigues - dubbed the "little green men" - were Russian. Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue. A trailer for the documentary was shown on state-run TV channel Rossiya-1 But Mr Putin subsequently admitted deploying troops on the peninsula to "stand behind Crimea's self-defence forces". The formal annexation of Crimea sparked unrest in eastern Ukraine in April, when pro-Russian protesters occupied government buildings in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv demanding independence. A month later, pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk declared independence from Ukraine after unrecognised referendums. Ukraine responded by launching an "anti-terrorist operation" against them and the region became engulfed in a conflict which has cost at least 6,000 lives, according to the UN. line Timeline: How Crimea was annexed 22 February, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych flees Kiev after violent protests 23 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to rescue Mr Yanukovych and annexe Crimea 27 February, pro-Russian gunmen seize Crimea's parliament and other key buildings 28 February, unidentified soldiers in combat fatigues occupy two airports in Crimea 1 March, Russian parliament approves Mr Putin's request to use force in Ukraine 16 March, voters in Crimea agree to join Russia in disputed referendum 18 March, Mr Putin signs a bill absorbing Crimea into the Russian Federation Ukraine crisis: Timeline line The Ukrainian government, Western leaders and Nato say there is clear evidence that Russia is helping the separatists with heavy weapons and soldiers. Independent experts echo that accusation. Moscow denies it, insisting that any Russians serving with the rebels are "volunteers". 'Good deed' Full details of Mr Yanukovych's escape from Ukraine are unclear although Mr Putin spoke of Russian efforts to evacuate him and threats against his life. "For us it became clear and we received information that there were plans not only for his capture, but, preferably for those who carried out the coup, also for his physical elimination," Mr Putin says in the film. He said preparations to extract Mr Yanukovych were made by land, sea and air, saying "heavy machine guns" were placed in Donetsk "so as not to waste time talking". Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Mr Putin as saying that saving the life of Ukraine's former leader and his family was a "good deed". The documentary was made by Andrei Kondrashov, a journalist with state-run channel Rossiya-1. II. http://rt.com/news/240921-us-masterminds-ukraine-putin/ Putin in film on Crimea: US masterminds behind Ukraine coup, helped train radicals Published time: March 15, 2015 14:18 Edited time: March 15, 2015 17:36 Get short URL Vladimir Putin (Screenshot from 'Crimea - The Way Home' documentary aired by Rossiya 1 news channel)Vladimir Putin (Screenshot from 'Crimea - The Way Home' documentary aired by Rossiya 1 news channel) ***The Ukrainian armed coup was organized from Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in an interview for a new documentary aired Sunday. The Americans tried to hide behind the Europeans, but Moscow saw through the trick, he added.*** [Emphasis added.] "The trick of the situation was that outwardly the [Ukrainian] opposition was supported mostly by the Europeans. But we knew for sure that the real masterminds were our American friends,"Putin said in a documentary, 'Crimea - The Way Home,' aired by Rossiya 1 news channel. "They helped training the nationalists, their armed groups, in Western Ukraine, in Poland and to some extent in Lithuania," he added. "They facilitated the armed coup." The West spared no effort to prevent Crimea's reunification with Russia, "by any means, in any format and under any scheme," he noted. Putin said this approach was far from being the best dealing with any country, and a post-Soviet country like Ukraine specifically. Such countries have a short record of living under a new political system and remain fragile. Violating constitutional order in such a country inevitably deal a lot of damage to its statehood, the president said. Soldiers near a military base in the village of Perevalnoe, Crimea where a coastal defense brigade blocked the Ukrainian Navy (RIA Novosti)Soldiers near a military base in the village of Perevalnoe, Crimea where a coastal defense brigade blocked the Ukrainian Navy (RIA Novosti) READ MORE: US boosting 'anti-propaganda' budget, mulling 'increase of lethality' for Ukraine support - Nuland "The law was thrown away and crashed. And the consequences were grave indeed. Part of the country agreed to it, while another part wouldn't accept it. The country was shattered," Putin explained. He also accused the beneficiaries of the coup of planning an assassination of then-President Viktor Yanukovich. Russia was prepared to act to ensure his escape, Putin said. "I invited the heads of our special services, the Defense Ministry and ordered them to protect the life of the Ukrainian president. Otherwise he would have been killed," he said, adding that at one point Russian signal intelligence, which was tracking the president's motorcade route, realized that he was about to be ambushed. Yanukovich himself didn't want to leave and rejected the offer to be evacuated from Donetsk, Putin said. Only after spending several days in Crimea and realizing that "there was no one he could negotiate with in Kiev" he asked to be taken to Russia. Viktor Yanukovich after a news conference in Rostov-on-Don (RIA Novosti)Viktor Yanukovich after a news conference in Rostov-on-Don (RIA Novosti) The Russian president personally ordered preparation of the Crimean special operation the morning after Yanukovich fled, saying that "we cannot let the [Crimean] people be pushed under the steamroller of the nationalists." "I [gave them] their tasks, told them what to do and how we must do it, and stressed that we would only do it if we were absolutely sure that this is what the people living in Crimea want us to do," Putin said. He added that an emergency public opinion poll indicated that at least 75 percent of the people wanted to join Russia. "Our goal was not to take Crimea by annexing it. Our final goal was to allow the people express their wishes on how they want to live," he said. "I decided for myself: what the people want will happen. If they want greater autonomy with some extra rights within Ukraine, so be it. If they decide otherwise, we cannot fail them. You know the results of the referendum. We did what we had to do," Putin said. READ MORE: 95.7% of Crimeans in referendum voted to join Russia - preliminary results He added that his personal involvement helped expedite things, because the people carrying out his decision had no reason to hesitate. According to Putin, part of the operation was to deploy K-300P Bastion coastal defense missiles to demonstrate Russia's willingness to protect the peninsula from military attack. "We deployed them in a way that made them seen clearly from space," Putin said. The president assured that the Russian military were prepared for any developments and would have armed nuclear weapons if necessary. He personally was not sure that Western nations would not use military force against Russia, he added. A tent camp of the supporters of Ukraine's integration with the EU on Maidan Square in Kiev where clashes between protesters and police began in February 18, 2014 (RIA Novosti / Alexey Furman)A tent camp of the supporters of Ukraine's integration with the EU on Maidan Square in Kiev where clashes between protesters and police began in February 18, 2014 (RIA Novosti / Alexey Furman) In order to demilitarize the Ukrainian troops based in Crimea, Russia sent the army's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) forces, the president said. "A specific set of personnel was needed to block and demilitarize 20,000 people, who were well-armed. Not only in quantity, but in quality," Putin said, adding that he gave orders to the Defense Ministry to "deploy the special forces of the GRU, together with marine forces and paratroopers." However, according to Putin, the number of Russian forces did not exceed the limit of 20,000 authorized under the agreement on basing the Russian Black Sea Fleet at its military base in Crimea. "As we didn't exceed the number of personnel on our base in Crimea, strictly speaking, nothing was violated," he said. The Russian president added that the move to send additional Russian troops to secure Crimea and allow a referendum to be freely held there prevented major bloodshed on the peninsula. "Considering the ethnic composition of the Crimean population, the violence there would have been worse [than in Kiev]. We had to act to prevent negative development, not to allow tragedies like the one that happened in Odessa, where dozens of people were burned alive," Putin said. READ MORE: As part of Russian territory Crimea can host nuclear weapons - Foreign Ministry He acknowledged that there were some Crimean people, particularly members of the Crimean Tatar minority, who opposed the Russian operation. "Some of the Crimean Tatars were under the influence of their leaders, some of whom are so to speak 'professional' fighters for the rights of the Tatars," he explained. Simferopol residents attending the "Crimea-Spring" concert on Lenin Square in the city center on the day of voting in a referendum about the status of Crimea (RIA Novosti)Simferopol residents attending the "Crimea-Spring" concert on Lenin Square in the city center on the day of voting in a referendum about the status of Crimea (RIA Novosti) But at the same time the "Crimean militia worked together with the Tatars. And there were Tatars among the militia members," he stressed. The Crimean people voted in a referendum to join Russia after rejecting a coup-imposed government that took power in Kiev in February 2014. The move sparked a major international controversy, as the new government's foreign backers accused Russia of annexing the peninsula through military force. Moscow insists that the move was a legitimate act of self-determination and that the Russian troops acted only to provide security and not as an occupying force. Russian officials cite the example of Kiev's military crackdown on the dissenting eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which claimed more than 6,000 lives since April 2014, as an example of bloodshed that Russia acted to prevent in Crimea. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. 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