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| Putin changes course, admits Russian troops were in Crimea before vote | Putin changes course, admits Russian troops were in Crimea before vote |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin, who repeatedly denied Russian troops had entered Crimea before the March referendum there, changed his version of those events Thursday, telling the nation that they had indeed been there all along. | MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin, who repeatedly denied Russian troops had entered Crimea before the March referendum there, changed his version of those events Thursday, telling the nation that they had indeed been there all along. |
| But the green-uniformed men observed in eastern Ukraine right now, storming buildings and raising the Russian flag, are not Russian, he said. “Those are local residents,” he said. | |
| Putin made several ominous statements about eastern Ukraine, referring to it as New Russia, observing that Russia’s legislature had authorized him to use troops there and accusing the Kiev government of carrying out crimes against its people. | |
| Instead of understanding that they had problems to solve in the east, Putin said, Ukrainian authorities began using tanks against their people. | |
| “It’s another serious crime of today’s authorities in Kiev,” he said. “They are dragging their country down the abyss together.” | |
| And, making it sound more like a warning than reassurance, he alluded to the use of force in Ukraine. “I very much hope I will not have to use this right and we will manage to resolve all pressing, not to say, critical contemporary problems of Ukraine with political and diplomatic means,” he said. | |
| The United States and Europe have peppered Putin and other Russian officials with accusations in the last few days that they are lying when they say Moscow has no hand in the disorder playing out in eastern Ukraine, close to Russia’s border. | The United States and Europe have peppered Putin and other Russian officials with accusations in the last few days that they are lying when they say Moscow has no hand in the disorder playing out in eastern Ukraine, close to Russia’s border. |
| “Of course we had our servicemen behind the self-defense units of Crimea,” Putin said in a televised meeting with the nation. “We had to make sure what is happening now in eastern Ukraine didn’t happen there.” | “Of course we had our servicemen behind the self-defense units of Crimea,” Putin said in a televised meeting with the nation. “We had to make sure what is happening now in eastern Ukraine didn’t happen there.” |
| Putin was asked in regard to Crimea: “Who were those men in green uniforms?” They were Russian troops, he answered, deployed to make sure residents of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula were safe from assault by the government in Kiev. They also needed the proper conditions, he said, so they could safely vote in a referendum on secession. Russia annexed Crimea after a March 16 referendum, in which voters approved leaving Ukraine. | |
| In early March, reporters asked Putin about the appearance in Crimea of mysterious armed men in green uniforms, which had no insignia but resembled Russian gear. | In early March, reporters asked Putin about the appearance in Crimea of mysterious armed men in green uniforms, which had no insignia but resembled Russian gear. |
| “There are many uniforms there that are similar. You can go to a store and buy any kind of uniform,” he said then. “Those were local self-defense units.” | “There are many uniforms there that are similar. You can go to a store and buy any kind of uniform,” he said then. “Those were local self-defense units.” |
| A reporter asked then if Putin considered it possible Crimea could join Russia. | A reporter asked then if Putin considered it possible Crimea could join Russia. |
| “No, we do not,” he said. | “No, we do not,” he said. |
| In Crimea, Putin asserted Thursday, the local largely ethnic Russian population was under threat from Kiev. | |
| “They had 20,000 well-armed Ukrainian troops,” he said. “We had to protect the civilian population from even the slightest opportunity of those weapons being used against them.” | “They had 20,000 well-armed Ukrainian troops,” he said. “We had to protect the civilian population from even the slightest opportunity of those weapons being used against them.” |
| Putin, answering questions from a studio audience, from a video-connected crowd standing in the heart of the Crimean city of Sevastopol and from people calling in and texting from around the nation, said that Russian troops were not, however, now present in eastern Ukraine. | |
| “In Crimea, the threats to the Russian-speaking population were quite real, palpable,” he said Thursday. “They turned to Russia for help. Russia never planned any annexation or military actions in Crimea. | |
| “But when this situation came up, when people said they wanted self-determination, that’s when we knew what we had to do. Everyone in the National Security Council agreed. Everything was done quickly and decisively. There have been no analogues in global history.” | “But when this situation came up, when people said they wanted self-determination, that’s when we knew what we had to do. Everyone in the National Security Council agreed. Everything was done quickly and decisively. There have been no analogues in global history.” |