Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has hailed the “return” of Crimea to Russia at a concert marking the 10th anniversary of the illegal annexation of the territory from Ukraine.He said Crimea had “returned to its home harbour” and that it would move forwards with Russia “hand in hand”.
Mr Putin was addressing thousands in Moscow’s Red Square a day after claiming a landslide election win.The vote has been condemned by Western governments as a sham.UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said the elections, in which serious opposition candidates were not allowed to stand, “starkly underline the depth of repression under President Putin’s regime”.
He also stressed that holding Russian elections in occupied Ukrainian territories was an “abhorrent violation of the UN charter and Ukrainian sovereignty”.
Germany which called it a “pseudo-election”, while the US said it was “obviously not free nor fair.” Ukraine’s president accused Putin of “simulating” another election.
China, Saudi Arabia and India all congratulated Mr Putin:
In a message to the Russian president, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that under his leadership Russia would “certainly be able to achieve greater achievements in national development and construction”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he looked forward to strengthening Delhi’s “time-tested special and privileged strategic partnership” with Moscow
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman praised the Russian president’s “decisive” victory.
The Black Sea peninsula of Crimea was annexed by Moscow in 2014 – eight years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the seizure of its Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
On Monday, Mr Putin said the “return” of those four Ukrainian regions to Russia had turned out to be “much more grave and tragic” than Crimea.
“But in the end we did it. It is a big event in the history of our country,” he said, describing the occupied territories as part of “New Russia”. The crowd responded with chants of “Russia, Russia”.
Mr Putin also announced a new railway that will run from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Crimea via occupied Ukraine – which would serve as an alternative to the current bridge which links the peninsula to Russia’s mainland.
source:bbc
