NEW YORK, June 23. /TASS/. Many Russian speakers in Crimea supported the idea of the peninsula joining Russia in 2014, and some countries in Europe understood that, former US President Barack Obama told CNN.

"Ukraine of that time was not the Ukraine that we’re talking about today, <...> Crimea was full of a lot of Russian speakers and there was some sympathy to the views that Russia was representing. <...> Part of what happened was, both myself and also [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, who I give enormous credit for, had to pull in a lot of other Europeans kicking and screaming to impose the sanctions [on Moscow]," the former president said.

In March 2014, Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum on reunification with Russia. Almost 97% of voters supported the regions' accession to the Russian Federation.