NEW YORK, February 28. /TASS/. The aggressive political moves taken by Western and Ukrainian leaders indicate that they essentially recognize Crimea’s residents as Russian nationals, the Russian Embassy in the US said in a statement posted on VKontakte social network.
"The most amazing thing is that the new authorities in Ukraine and in the West have actually recognized Crimeans as Russians," the diplomats stressed. "How else can we explain the fact that the Kiev regime stripped the peninsula’s residents of water and electricity? That is not the proper way of treating their own citizens."
"Washington and Brussels also imposed a series of collective sanctions on Crimeans, repressing them for their free choice," the embassy stressed. "This move probably stems from desperation caused by the impossibility to bring them back to the state steeped in Russophobia. Washington can hardly come up with a more absurd demand addressed to Russia than let mass carnage against Crimeans happen."
Response to Pompeo
The Russian Embassy also commented on recent remarks by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who said that Washington planned to maintain anti-Russian sanctions. "We haven’t heard anything new. Only unsubstantiated accusations targeted at those who have no opportunity to learn the opinion of the people in Crimea about the events that took place five years ago," the embassy stressed.
"Small wonder that Washington is thus trying to conceal its decisive role in toppling the legitimately elected Ukrainian president," the statement reads. "That was accompanied by bloody crimes, which have never been investigated, and led to an internal conflict in the east of the country."
The embassy also noted that in 2014, "the residents of Crimea decided not to take part in the project to build an anti-Russian state." The only way to avoid the imposition of an ideology that lauds Nazi collaborators was Crimea’s reunification with Russia "based on the right to self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter," it stressed.
Crimea referendum
After the Western-backed coup in Ukraine in February 2014, Crimea and the city of Sevastopol held a referendum, in which 96.7% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deal on March 18, 2014, which was ratified by the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) on March 21.
Despite the convincing results of the referendum, Kiev, along with various predominantly Western countries, refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.