[ rfe/rl banner ]

Putin Was 'Ready For Nuclear Alert'

March 15, 2015
by RFE/RL

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in a prerecorded documentary about Russia's seizure of Crimea, said he was prepared to put Russia's nuclear weapons on alert during tensions over the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea.

Putin said in the documentary that he was 'ready to do this,' when asked if Russia's nuclear forces could be put on standby.

The nearly three-hour documentary, Crimea: Path To The Homeland, was aired on March 15.

Putin said in the film he was unsure if the West would intervene militarily to stop Russia's takeover of Crimea in March 2014 but he was ready for 'the worst possible turn of events.'

He added that he received many calls from foreign leaders telling him to stop Russian actions in Crimea but he told them it was 'our historical territory,' that the Russian people living there 'were in danger and we cannot abandon them.'

Putin said because his reply was so 'frank and open' no country 'was in the mood to start a world war.'

He also claimed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's life was in danger as a result of what he called a 'revolution' by forces he said set out to seize power in Kyiv.

Before the documentary was broadcast, Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying in the film, 'For us it became clear and we received information that there were plans not only for his capture, but preferably for those who carried out the coup, also for his physical elimination.' Putin was quoted as adding, 'As one famous historical figure said: no person, no problem.'

Mass protests over Yanukovych's sudden decision in November 2013 to back away from a key agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow led to his ouster from power in February last year, and he fled to Russia.

The Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying that that Russia had saved the lives of Yanukovych and his family and calling it a 'good deed.'

Putin has not been seen in public or on live television since March 5, prompting a wave of speculation about his whereabouts and mockery across the Internet, despite official insistence that it was business as usual in the Kremlin.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian leader would watch the documentary, Crimea: Path To The Homeland, when it airs at 10:00 p.m. Moscow time on March 15.

The documentary marks a year since the widely questioned March 16, 2014, referendum in Crimea that supported its secession from Ukraine.

The referendum has been widely denounced as illegitimate and Russia's annexation of Crimea just days after the referendum was condemned by dozens of countries and declared to be illegal in an overwhelming vote by the UN General Assembly.

In the documentary, Putin accused the United States of being 'puppeteers' behind what he described as a coup against Yanukovych -- assertions the United States has dismissed as false.

'Formally, the opposition was primarily supported by Europeans, but we knew very well… that the real puppeteers were our American partners and friends. It was they who helped prepare nationalists [and] combat troops,' Putin said.

A trailer of the documentary broadcast on March 8 has already prompted Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to urge the International Tribunal in The Hague to consider the footage as evidence of Russia's premeditated invasion of Crimea.

In the trailer, Putin says he told senior security officials of his decision to take Crimea just hours after Yanukovych abandoned power.

Putin described in the trailer an emergency Kremlin meeting, which he said ended at about 7 a.m. on February 23, 2014.

'As we were parting, I told all my colleagues: We will have to start work to return Crimea to Russia,' Putin said.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, Interfax, TASS, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-putin- crimea-documentary/26901915.html

NEWSLETTER

Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Putin Was 'Ready For Nuclear Alert'