SIMFEROPOL, January 13. /TASS/. Crimean Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya said Wednesday her white ceremonial general’s jacket had been hand-tailored, but shoulder straps had to be cut by half.
"Both men and women have [clothes] hand-tailored. Each general has his or her shoulder sizes. I was given big shoulder straps, so we cut them by half," Poklonskaya told journalists at a meeting on the occasion of the Russian Press Day.
The Crimean Prosecutor on Tuesday made her first public appearance in a ceremonial white jacket with general’s shoulder straps.
Poklonskaya, along with other officials of the prosecutor’s office, accepted congratulations on the occasion of the Prosecutor’s Office Workers’ Day.
"I wore a white jacket for the first time… It’s a great responsibility. I am proud of wearing it," she told TASS.
Poklonskaya was appointed to the post of Crimea’s prosecutor by the Russian president’s decree of May 2, 2014. In June 2015, she was given the class rank of the State Councilor of Justice, 3rd Class, which is equivalent to the military rank of Major General.
"I am proud of working in the Russian prosecutor’s office. I am proud of having the honor to work with such people. I am proud that I was appointed prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea in 2014. And I will do everything to strengthen our fair name of prosecutor," she said.
Poklonskaya is a native Crimean. She has been working in the prosecutor’s office system since 2012. She became specially popular after her first appearance in front of television cameras as acting prosecutor of the republic in March 2014. Internet videos from her first news conference have several million views.
The Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, a city with a special status on the Crimean Peninsula, where most residents are Russians, refused to recognize the legitimacy of authorities brought to power amid riots during a coup in Ukraine in February 2014.
Crimea and Sevastopol adopted declarations of independence on March 11, 2014. They held a referendum on March 16, 2014, in which 96.77% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deals March 18, 2014.
Despite Moscow’s repeated statements that the Crimean referendum on secession from Ukraine was in line with the international law and the UN Charter and in conformity with the precedent set by Kosovo’s secession from Serbia in 2008, the West and Kiev have refused to recognize the legality of Crimea’s reunification with Russia.
Work to integrate the Crimean Peninsula into Russia’s economic, financial, credit, legal, state power, military conscription and infrastructure systems has been actively underway since Crimea acceded to the Russian Federation.
According to the Crimean and Ukrainian statistics bodies, as of early 2014, Crimea had a population of 1,959,000 people; Sevastopol has a population of 384,000 people.
Crimea had joined the Russian Empire in 1783, when it was conquered by Russian Empress Catherine the Great.
In the Soviet Union, Crimea used to be part of Russia until 1954, when Nikita Khrushchev, the first secretary of the USSR’s Communist Party, transferred it to Ukraine's jurisdiction as a gift.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Crimea became part of newly independent Ukraine and remained in that capacity until March 2014, when it reunified with Russia after some 60 years as part of Ukraine.