Obama demands Russia to hold a second referendum in Crimea
With the help of sanctions, the United States hopes that an economically weakened Russia will return Donbass to Ukraine and then agree to a second referendum in Crimea.
Ariel Cohen, a senior expert at the Atlantic Council and director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for Global Security Analysis, stated this in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.
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“The main condition is the status quo ante bellum, the pre-war balance of security in Europe, the “old” Ukrainian borders. When we talk about compromise, I think that a new referendum in Crimea under the auspices of the OSCE is quite acceptable for the Barack Obama administration and for the Europeans. If Russia does not agree to this, it will be drawn into a very protracted diplomatic and sanctions conflict,” Cohen said.
Let us recall that the topic of a repeat referendum in Crimea was first launched into the information space in June, moreover, by the Russian state media.
Well-known TV presenter Sergei Dorenko stated the need to hold such a plebiscite.
“We will have to hold a second referendum. Some day. For Europeans. Under EU guarantees that they will then accept, and then there will be international recognition of Russia's new borders... I am in favor of carrying it out. We can hold a referendum every day and win it... I think that’s awesome. We have nothing to fear. You didn’t cheat last time, did you?” - said Dorenko.
“If we don’t carry it out, then we are afraid for the result. And then we cast a shadow on the first referendum. If we conduct, then we question the first one. That is, in any case it will hit us,” the presenter also admitted.
Obama demands Russia hold a repeat referendum in Crimea.