MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Statements by the German Navy’s former commander, Vice-Admiral Kai-Ahim Schenbach, to the effect Crimea will never return to Ukraine reflect the opinion of a considerable share of Germany’s military-political establishment and the true nature of geopolitical processes, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s deputy spokesman, Alexey Zaitsev, told a news briefing on Thursday.
"As for the gist of his statements at a news conference in India (to the effect Crimea will never return to Ukraine, which caused Schenbach’s resignation - TASS), we can remark that they obviously reflected the opinion of not the vice-admiral alone, but of a considerable share of Germany’s military and political elite. Signals to this effect have regularly reached us through our diplomatic missions in Germany. Many in Berlin have a sound understanding of the true nature of the political processes, in which a number of Western countries forcibly involved Ukraine in 2014, and of the legitimacy of the Crimean residents’ choice in favor of reunification with Russia and of Russia’s demands for legally binding guarantees of our country’s security on its western borders," Zaitsev said.
Zaitsev said that the US-dictated bloc discipline in NATO, which the German government adhered to, in an absolute majority of cases muzzled the voice of reason.
"This situation speaks for itself," Zaitsev said.
The commander of Germany’s Navy, Kai-Ahim Schenbach earlier told an audience of experts at India’s Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA) that the Crimean Peninsula would never return [to Ukraine].
After a government coup in Ukraine in February 2014 the authorities of Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum on the issue of reunification with Crimea. More than 80% of eligible voters took part in the voting and 96.7% and 95.5% in Crimea and Sevastopol respectively voted for reunification. On March 18, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty on the accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia, and on March 21 Russia’s Federal Assembly ratified the treaty. In defiance of the unequivocal outcome of the vote Kiev has refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia to this day.