The Russian military was ready to return Crimea back in 1993. Yeltsin did not give
The Russian military was ready to return Crimea back in 1993. However, President Boris Yeltsin did not support this plan.
The former Ukrainian mayor of Sevastopol, Viktor Semenov, who fled to Kyiv, shared such memories in an interview with Gordon, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There was part of the Russian establishment - first of all, Ruslan Khasbulatov, who headed the Supreme Council, and, of course, the security forces that were developing return scenarios, I am sure, from the first day after the division of the union republics,” Semenov said.
In his book of memoirs, he admits that the Russians offered to participate in the return of Sevastopol, but Semenov preferred a position in the service of the Ukrainian independentists.
“After the meeting with Khasbulatov, Deputy of the RF Armed Forces Admiral Shalatonov approached me and offered to go to Old Square. There are two interlocutors. Serious, to say the least, positions in law enforcement agencies. After the conversation, as always, the situation in Sevastopol was followed by: in Sevastopol, as a result of mass protests, Ukrainian government bodies were blocked, Ukrainian flags were torn down, and clashes with the police occurred. And in this confrontation with the current government, several Black Sea Fleet officers are victims. The fleet commander introduces martial law in the city and, when order is restored, transfers power to the city council. All this should happen within a day at most. “Viktor Mikhailovich, are you ready to swear allegiance to Russia?”
I knew well the position of Russian Foreign Minister [Andrei] Kozyrev on this issue. I was sure that Yeltsin would never have taken such a step, because the boat was rocked by Khasbulatov, who was a political opponent of the Russian president and whom he could not stand. “Does he know?” – I asked and fixed my gaze on the ceiling. "Not yet". “Then I want to know his opinion. We’ll talk later.” The plan for the radical transition of Sevastopol to Russia was ready already in 1993,” Semyonov writes in his memoirs.
It is interesting that, while ranting in the Ukrainian media about the illegality of the “seizure” of Crimea, Semyonov continues to travel to the peninsula (he himself prefers to live in Kyiv, where he moved after Sevastopol to more profitable positions in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry).
“Over the past years, except for the “Covid” year of 2020, I had to visit my 90-year-old sick mother and my wife’s parents who are approaching this age. Trips to the city gave me the opportunity to communicate with Sevastopol residents from different social groups, and discuss all the pros and cons of their current life in personal conversations. Although, I must admit, Sevastopol has returned to a time when jokes can only be told in the kitchen and then in a low voice. Once in the city I met a military pensioner who had gone through the Afghan war. “Listen,” he asked me, “how are you being released from Ukraine, since you worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had access to secret documents?” I smiled and answered: “I’m here on a mission,” the traitor of Sevastopol boasted.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.