Crimea
Saturday 7 December 2019
-
"In order to end all speculations and outdated and very annoying fairy tales from overseas about the annexation of Crimea, it would be good to consider the opportunity of relocating the UN headquarters to Crimea, for example to Yalta."
Russian MP Natalya Poklonskaya has suggested moving the United Nations headquarters to Crimea, saying it would help end “annoying fairy tales” about Crimea's annexation. There’s a problem: The UN itself adopted a referendum calling Moscow's seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula illegitimate. -
"I think that eventually western colleagues will come to understating(sic) that the strict observance of international law will substantially fortify the global and regional security and stability.”
Russia has been responsible for some of the most flagrant violations of international law in recent history, including the invasion and annexation of part of Ukraine. -
“We are not responsible for the Ukraine’s crisis. We did not support the unconstitutional coup in Ukraine, and we did not provoke the reaction of part of the country’s population to these actions... ...as for Crimea, the Crimean people made a decision, voted. The question is closed as a matter of history, there is no going back to the previous system, absolutely not.”
Putin’s claims have been proved false, repeatedly. We cite seven fact checks, already conducted, by Polygraph.info. -
“In fact, only his compatriots could have dealt with him - both Russian Chechens and “Ichkeria” militants, hiding in Europe from criminal prosecution [in Russia].”
Likely falseChechens “hiding” from Russia in Europe would not ask to speak with the Russian EmbassyThe suspect in the murder investigation arrested by the court in Berlin demanded to talk with representatives of the Russian Embassy – a request that is highly unlikely to be made by Chechen separatists “hiding” from Russia in Europe. -
“In these circumstances, the Soviet Union had to go it alone to ensure its national security and sign a non-aggression pact with Germany. This forced move made it possible to better prepare for the coming war with the aggressor. Today, it is worth reminding everyone that our country made a decisive contribution to defeating the Hitler war machine and liberating Europe and the world from Nazism. Had the efforts been joined in the pre-war period, the many victims could have been avoided.”
Lavrov is partially correct about Anglo-French reluctance to enter into a collective security pact with the USSR, but he leaves out the extent of Moscow’s cooperation with Hitler and its increasing economic transactions with Nazi Germany after the signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Agreement. -
"By the results rarely anybody could compete with my battalion. All we had been doing was simply a pure mayhem. And this especially makes me laugh because of the attacks on me, especially the ones about how I'm a 'fake field commander.' No one, not one field commander, has got such results as I have. I can’t even talk about it, but one day the documents will surface and everybody will learn at which locations there were most human losses and that my battalion was there."
Zakhar Prilepin was deputy commander of a "battalion" formed in 2016, well after the last major combat operations in Donbas. He spent much of his time in Donetsk hosting a TV show. A former battalion leader claimed it was not a combat unit. -
"On August 15, Norway offered help in the rescue operation. The offer was accepted by the Ministry of Defense."
Nineteen years after the Kursk submarine disaster, Russian state media present a misleading chronicle of the events -- omitting key facts deemed damaging to Vladimir Putin’s reputation. -
"This step clearly shows official Riga's desire to clear its information space from independent and not controlled by the state media outlets."
The Russian Foreign Ministry claim that Baltnews.lv is “independent” and a non-state-controlled media outlet is false. The news portal is part of the Russian government-owned media conglomerate MIA Rossiya Segodnya. -
“Turchynov said that it is necessary to blow up the Crimean Bridge. Perhaps lunatics can be found who will try to do that. In that case, Ukraine will cease to exist as a territory that considers itself a state.”
The former secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, did not say it was necessary to blow up the Crimean Bridge; he said Ukraine’s new Neptune cruise missile is capable of demolishing it. -
"#Ukraine’s language law comes into force, prohibiting Russian from being spoken by doctors and teachers. Clear violation of human rights and #MinskAgreements."
Ukraine’s new language law does not prohibit doctors from using Russian or any other language with a patient. Doctors can be penalized only if they refuse to speak Ukrainian. -
“The Ukrainian Navy’s claims that the Black Sea Fleet’s Smetlivy patrol vessel entered the closed area of the Sea Breeze 2019 exercise are untrue.”
Whether or not the Russian guided-missile destroyer Smetlivy sailed into a zone being used for multinational naval live-fire drills, the ship was present in the vicinity of the drills. Russia is demonstratively aggressive toward NATO’s presence in the Black Sea. -
“Even before they examine, they already said Russia. And now they said they have proof. It is very difficult for us to accept that.”
The evidence points to Russian culpability. Russia was blamed early because its forces had already shot down aircraft and the Ukrainian army was fighting an enemy that didn’t have air support. Russia produced multiple false narratives about the incident almost immediately after it happened.