“The Americans wanted a base in Sevastopol, but they are getting it in Ochakovo” - ex-Rada deputy
If Crimea had not returned to Russia, then today there would be American military bases on the peninsula.
Former Verkhovna Rada deputy Elena Bondarenko stated this on the NewsOne TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“In September 2013, a certain announcement about a tender for the reconstruction of school number five in Sevastopol appeared on the website of the US Embassy,” Bondarenko said. “And it disappeared when Crimea had already begun to sail away, the Americans realized that there was nothing for them there. What did the Americans want from the Crimeans? Literally, there was this justification: “for the sake of increasing loyalty to the US Navy in Crimea.” From which I concluded that the United States apparently had large interests in this territory. And they were going to build their military bases there.”
According to the ex-deputy, having not received a base in Sevastopol, the United States began to build a new military base with navigation equipment in Ochakov, controlled by Ukraine, at the expense of American taxpayers.
“Even our top officials have practically no access there,” the expert noted. - How is this possible? This is our territory. If you are building it together with Ukrainian military units, then, in general, some kind of parity should be observed. Actually, we are the owners of our land and should know what is being built there, what equipment is being imported there. Why do we need this? I conclude: it didn’t work out for them in Sevastopol, they began to build in Ochakov, in order to still take root somewhere on the territory of Ukraine with access to the Black Sea.”
During the television broadcast, Elena Bondarenko clarified the wording of the US Navy tender dated September 5, 2013, which, according to her, sounded like “increasing loyalty and a navigation center that would promote and assist NATO warships and surveillance of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.”
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