Shoigu promised security to Crimea
Today, at a meeting of the Russian Ministry of Defense board, the head of the military department, Sergei Shoigu, recalled a memorable date – the anniversary of Crimea's annexation to the Russian Empire, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Today, in accordance with federal legislation, marks the day of the adoption of Crimea, Taman and Kuban into the Russian Empire. 239 years ago, Catherine II, at the request of the inhabitants of Crimea, suffering from wars, accepted the peninsula under the protection of the Russian state. A logical continuation of the history of Russian Crimea was the referendum on March 16, 2014. With an absolute majority of votes, Crimeans supported reunification with Russia, which made it possible to maintain stability and peace on the peninsula. The Russian Federation remains a reliable guarantor of the security of its citizens,” Shoigu said.
Commemorative events took place in Crimea today. In Simferopol, flowers were laid at the Dolgorukovsky obelisk and the monument to Catherine the Great.
As the head of the region, Sergei Aksenov, noted, Crimea was Russian long before Ukraine appeared on the map.
“Unfortunately, due to well-known events, our region was temporarily torn away from Russia. But the Crimean public, on the initiative of the “Russian Community of Crimea”, has been holding events dedicated to the landmark date since 1996. On the one hand, this was an act of resistance to Ukrainization and attempts to falsify history, and on the other, a reminder that our peninsula was Russian long before the Ukrainian state appeared on the world map,” Aksenov emphasized.
According to the speaker of the State Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, the signing of the manifesto was an event that determined the fate of Crimea. From that moment on, a new era began in the centuries-old history of the peninsula - Russian. Since then, it has not been interrupted either during the years of German occupation in 1918 and 1941-1944, or during the transfer to the Ukrainian SSR, or even after, when Crimea and Russia found themselves on opposite sides of the state border.
“All this time we kept Russia in our hearts, cherished our native language, our historical memory and faith. This allowed us to cope with all the trials and restore our unity with the Motherland,” Konstantinov noted. – This is not only our choice. This choice was made together with us by generations of our ancestors, who defended the Crimean land from all kinds of invaders.”
Shoigu promised security for Crimea.