AFP, Moscow :
President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia took over Crimea because it had to protect Crimea’s mostly ethnic-Russian population after pro-Western Ukrainian nationalists came to power in Ukraine.
In the latest preview of an upcoming documentary called “Homeward bound” on state-run Rossiya-1 television, Putin portrayed Russia’s military takeover and annexation of the Ukrainian province as a rescue mission.
“We were forced to start working on returning Crimea to Russia because we could not abandon this territory and the people who live there to the mercy of fate, to be crushed by nationalists, ” Putin said.
In other excerpts from the documentary shown on Sunday, Putin revealed the moment he says he gave the secret order for Russia’s annexation of Crimea. He also described how Russian troops were ready to fight to get Yanukovych to safety.
He recounted an all-night meeting with security services chiefs.
“We ended at about seven in the morning,” Putin said. “When we were parting, I said to my colleagues: we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia.”
