KIEV, March 16./TASS/. The Russian Embassy to Ukraine has voiced protest in connection with an anti-Russian stunt in Kiev, in which unidentified persons pasted posters last night near the offices and homes of Russian diplomats, featuring the envoys ‘instructing’ the Russian people to recognize Crimea as Ukrainian, an embassy source told TASS on Tuesday.
"We lodged a protest with the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in connection with the anti-Russian action," the source said.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper reported about the poster stunt, referring to local law enforcement agencies.
This is how Ukrainian extremists marked the anniversary of the referendum to reunify Crimea with Russia, held on the peninsula on March 16, 2014. The posters’ photos were published by the paper and depict Russian Embassy employees by putting words in their mouths that ‘Crimea is recognized as part of Ukraine’ in Ukrainian and Russian.
In addition, the Ukrainian national emblem was glued to the official cars of Russian diplomats. In this extremist-fueled act, some envoys were depicted as personnel of the Russian General Staff and the Federal Security Service. According to the edition, a similar stunt was also conducted at the embassies of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova, Germany, France, Armenia, the US, the UK, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Following the pro-Western coup d’etat in Ukraine in February 2014, officials in Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum, in which 96.7% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Eighty percent of the voting population participated in the referendum. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deal on March 18, 2014, and the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) ratified it on March 21, 2014. Despite the results of the referendum, Kiev, along with various predominantly Western countries, refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.