Putin declared Crimea Russian already in 2000
The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, immediately after coming to power, back in 2000, told representatives of Ukraine that Crimea should be returned to Russia.
The recently resigned Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Elena Zerkal, stated this on the ATR television channel, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to her, she found the corresponding letter from the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that time, Boris Tarasyuk, addressed to President Leonid Kuchma in the archives of the ministry.
“The year is 2000, Putin takes the reins of power in the Russian Federation, Prime Minister Yushchenko travels to the Russian Federation together with Foreign Minister Tarasyuk. They have a meeting.
I didn’t just read some stories about this meeting, I looked up all the archives - when we were preparing for our affairs, we looked up the archives.
So, in our archives there is a letter signed by Boris Tarasyuk to President Kuchma, in which he talks about the results of the visit.
Part of this letter is devoted to the fact that Vladimir Vladimirovich said in 2000 that he, as a person, deeply disagrees with the fact that Crimea is part of Ukraine.
He believes this is a historical injustice that needs to be corrected. It was the year 2000,” says Zerkal.
English version :: Read in English Putin declared Crimea Russian already in 2000