Crimea
Tuesday 14 July 2020
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![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
“[I]t is unfair to claim that the two-day visit to Moscow of Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbentrop was the main reason for the start of the Second World War. All the leading countries are to a certain extent responsible for its outbreak.”
Read more...Putin’s view is not shared by most historians. The subsequent Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between the USSR and Germany triggered the Nazi invasion of Poland, and it provided Soviet economic aid that made German conquests possible. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian presidential spokesman
“No, Russia doesn’t have any territorial claims against its neighbors.”
Read more...In 2014, Russia invaded the Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and, after a “referendum,” brought it into the Russian Federation. Moreover, Russia maintains effective control over separatist territories in former Soviet states without annexing them. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian presidential spokesman
"We do not know about any oligarchs, or about their existence."
Read more...The names may have changed since Russian tycoons rallied around Boris Yeltsin in the early post-Soviet era, but there are still Russian oligarchs aplenty, and they have clout. -
![Vladimir Zharikhin]()
Vladimir Zharikhin
Deputy Head of the Institute of CIS Countries
“This (claim about persecution of Crimean Tatars) once again confirms that in Ukraine the name of the presidenthas changed, but the regime that came power in Ukraine after the coup has not changed. The actions are the same, the policy is the same, which is based on outright falsification, outright distortion of facts, outright labeling without any attempt to confirm them with any evidence.”
Read more...Repression targeting Crimean Tatars occurred even before Russia fully annexed the peninsula in 2014. It has been documented by human rights organizations and the United Nations. -
![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman
“However, we have long had questions regarding what the United States is guided by in including or not including certain organizations on its ‘blacklists’ [of terrorist organizations]. As you know, Washington has long refused to add the ISIS group to them.”
Read more...After the U.S. State Department named a Russia-based white-supremacist group to its terrorist list, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman falsely said the U.S. had refused to treat Islamic State terrorists the same way. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian Presidential Spokesman
“Crimea is part of the Russian Federation, with all the consequences this entails. Russia doesn’t have to leave Donbas soil since it had never entered there.”
Read more...Most governments have stated that Russia illegally occupied Crimea. An avalanche of evidence points to Russia’s involvement in the ongoing separatist conflict in Eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. -
![Igor Girkin AKA "Strelkov"]()
Igor Girkin AKA "Strelkov"
Russian Intelligence Operative, ex-commander of Russian-led forces in Donbas
“The militia did not bring down the Boeing, I know better than anyone. And there was nothing with which we could bring it down, at least before I left the territory of the DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic).”
Read more...Igor Girkin’s contradictory denials of rebel responsibility for the MH17 shootdown stop just short of fingering Russia. The July 17, 2014, missile strike killed all 298 aboard the Malaysia Airlines flight. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
President of Russia
“We are not going to fight against anyone. We are going to create conditions so that nobody wants to fight against us.”
Read more...In 2014, Putin initiated a military takeover of Crimea, Ukraine, and gave military support to a separatist insurgency in Donbas, where fighting continues. In 2015, he inserted Russia into the Syrian civil war. -
![Russian Foreign Ministry]()
Russian Foreign Ministry
We fact check six false or misleading claims by made by the Russian Foreign Ministry in its annual review of the Kremlin’s policy initiatives.
Read more...Each year, the Russian Foreign Ministry issues an annual review. Polygraph.info fact-checks six of the false or misleading claims made about cybersecurity, Syria, the United States, Latin America and the INF treaty. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
President of Russia
"I'm constantly being asked this question: where do they get tanks and heavy artillery? Listen, in many hot spots around the world there are various kinds of conflicts and military campaigns, including with the use of tanks, artillery, and so on. Where does this come from? Apparently, from those structures and states who sympathize with them, but this is their equipment, not foreign. I'd like to draw attention to that."
Read more...Russia is the only country that has a land border with the separatists’ self-proclaimed “republics,” and numerous pieces of Russian military equipment and their crews have been identified in Donbas. There is no evidence that other countries have provided such weapons. -
![Russian Embassy in Canada Twitter Account]()
Russian Embassy in Canada Twitter Account
Official Russian Foreign Ministry social media account
While ‘brain dead’ @NATO annual #military budget exeeds [sic] $1 trillion, #Russia spends on defence 23 times less (only $46 bln). Neretheless, [sic] #fake Russian threat is used to justify even more waste of taxpayers’ $. Good for business strategy, dangerous for intl. peace & security”
Read more...It’s no surprise that NATO’s 29 countries collectively spend more on defense than Russia alone. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian Presidential Spokesman
"No, you know, this is a question that has nothing to do with the Kremlin, so I can't say anything here."
Read more...Volodymyr Tsemakh was put on a list of prisoners held by Ukraine who were exchanged for Russian prisoners on Sept. 7. Tsemakh is a Ukrainian citizen; he was interviewed on Russian state TV after the swap.
