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Decision to give Crimea to Ukraine contained clear violation of constitution norms — Putin

MOSCOW, March 18. /ITAR-TASS/. The decision on the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine had been taken in obvious violation of the constitutional norms in effect at that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Tuesday in his address in connection with the planned admission of the Republic of Crimea to Russia.

He said that the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine had been Nikita Khrushchev’s personal idea for some reasons that “historians now should make out.”

However, the president stressed, it obviously happened “in violation of the existing constitutional norms,” it was “a closed-door deal.” “In the conditions of a totalitarian state nobody asked the residents’ opinion, they were just confronted with a fait accompli,” Putin stated.

Putin's statement on Crimea's application to join Russia. Live