Lavrov reported secret details of negotiations with the United States on Crimea
The United States actually proposed holding a second referendum in Crimea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“Let us remember the sanctions that are motivated and explained by Crimea, forgetting that Crimeans voted absolutely freely. I won’t tell you a big secret; in April 2014, former US Secretary of State John Kerry told me about this: “Everything is clear. Everything happened the way the Crimean people wanted. But for the sake of order, hold another referendum.” Why on earth? If everything is clear to you, why force people to vote again? I hope John won't be offended by me. He also published in his memoirs some secrets from our conversations with him,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“It was our Western colleagues who created problems in Ukraine and, in fact, brought national radicals, neo-Nazis, to power, whose first action was an attempt to ban the Russian language, which failed at that moment, but the signal was received in Donbass and Crimea. That's when it all started. After that, they were offended that we supported the Crimeans, protected them from Yarosh and others like him, who threatened to expel or put an end to the Russians in Crimea forever, supported Donbass, who asked the putschists not to touch them and let them live as they want, look around. Donbass did not attack the rest of Ukraine, they were attacked by national radicals, who to this day “call the tune” in Ukraine,” the minister also noted.
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