Putin wanted to use nuclear weapons to capture the Crimea

Vladimir Putin considered the possibility of using nuclear weapons in the annexation of the Crimea in the event of armed confrontation from Western countries.

The Russian President spoke about this in Andrei Kondrashov’s documentary “Crimea. The Way to the Homeland”, shown on Sunday by the Rossiya 1 TV channel. The film is timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Russian annexation of Crimea.

“We were ready to do this [to put the nuclear forces on alert]. I talked to [western] colleagues and told them that this [Crimea] is our historical territory, there are Russian people living there, they were in danger, we cannot throw them away, ”Putin's website quotes VGTRK.

Judging by the words of Vladimir Putin, he believes that the United States was ready to enter the war for the Crimea.

“We did not carry out a coup [as Putin calls the change of power in Ukraine as a result of the protests on the Maidan], it was done by nationalists and people with extreme convictions. You supported them. But where are you? Thousands of kilometers away? And we are here, and this is our land! What do you want to fight for there? Do not know? And we know. And we are ready for this,” the Russian president says in the film, apparently addressing the United States.

According to his confession, the annexation of the Crimea was accompanied by a military operation aimed at protecting the peninsula from possible military seizure.

In particular, Bastion coastal systems were deployed to Crimea - powerful defensive installations designed to protect the coastline from attack from the sea.

“And, among other things, we deliberately deployed these complexes so that they could be seen from space,” Putin added.

“We made a fortress out of Crimea”

“We made a fortress out of Crimea. Both from the sea and from the land,” says the Russian president in the film “Crimea. The path to the homeland."

Vladimir Putin also acknowledged that divisions of the GRU and marines participated in the operation to annex the Crimea, which were faced with the task of neutralizing the Ukrainian military units stationed on the peninsula.

“We needed specialists who knew how to do this. Therefore, I gave orders and instructions to the Ministry of Defense, what to hide, under the guise of strengthening the security of our military facilities in Crimea, to transfer there special forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate and marine forces, paratroopers,” says Putin.

At the same time, he added that he had not used the Council of the Federation permission to send troops to Ukraine, and the number of personnel of the Black Sea Fleet base in the Crimea was not exceeded.

“I didn’t even need to use the permission of the Federation Council to send our troops into Ukraine, I didn’t bend my heart. Because, according to the relevant international treaty, we had the right to have 20 thousand people at our military base in Crimea. Even a little more. Even with the amount that we added, we did not reach 20 thousand,” Putin says in the film “Crimea. The path to the homeland."

“I dealt with this personally”

The success of this entire operation, according to the Russian leader, was predetermined by the fact that he personally led it: “Our advantage, do you know what it was? The fact is that I did this personally. Not because I did everything right there, but because when the top officials of the state do it, it’s easier for the performers to work.”

“They feel it, understand it and know that they are executing an order and not engaging in arbitrariness. And when the state structure is in collapse or in a dilapidated state, then orders are either not given at all, or do not reach the executors, or there are serious doubts about their legitimacy,” says Vladimir Putin.

“The USA was behind the events in Kyiv”

As for last year's protests on the Maidan, the Russian president said in the film that, in his opinion, the United States stood behind the change of power in Kiev last year.

“Formally, the opposition was supported, first of all, by the Europeans, but we knew very well, not only were we aware, but we knew that the real puppet masters were our American partners and friends. It was they who helped train nationalists, they helped train combat units,” Putin said in the film “Crimea. The path to the homeland."

According to Vladimir Putin, the “training of combat detachments” took place on the territory of Poland and Lithuania.

“What did our partners do? Contributed to the coup d'etat. That is, they began to act from a position of strength. I don’t think this is the best way to do things,” Putin added.

He also said that the main purpose of the Russian annexation of the Crimea was to prevent bloodshed.

“I am sure that, taking into account the ethnic composition of the population in Crimea, it would be even worse there [than on the Maidan]. We had to take certain actions to prevent such a negative development of events, so that there would be no tragedies that later played out in Odessa, when dozens of people were burned alive. We should not have allowed bloodshed under any circumstances,” Putin said in a film shown on the Rossiya 1 TV channel.

“They wanted to eliminate Yanukovych”

Vladimir Putin said he did not condemn the decision of the ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych not to use weapons against the protesters, but noted that this inaction led to grave consequences.

“I don’t want to evaluate his [Yanukovych’s] work. He said: “I could not sign the order to use the weapon. I didn’t raise my hand”... Can we blame him for this? I don't know. And I'm not going to do that. I don't consider myself entitled to do this. Good or bad, the consequences of inaction are severe. This is obvious,” Putin said in the film “Crimea. The path to the homeland."

In this film, Putin also says that “the organizers of last year’s coup d’etat” in Kyiv planned to seize power and physically eliminate Yanukovych.

“It became known that not only his [Viktor Yanukovych’s] capture was being prepared, but that the preferable option for those who carried out this coup d’état was his physical elimination. If there is no person, as a famous historical figure said, there is no problem,” Putin noted.

Previously, an excerpt from the film “Crimea” was shown. Path to the Motherland”, in which Vladimir Putin says that the decision to annex Crimea was announced by him in a narrow meeting on the night before the closing of the Olympics in Sochi on February 23: “I told all my colleagues (there were four of them): “The situation turned out like this way in Ukraine that we are forced to begin work on returning Crimea to Russia, because we cannot abandon this territory and the people who live there to the mercy of fate under the nationalists’ steamroller.”

Moscow’s actions on the annexation of Crimea were condemned by the international community. Western countries have imposed sanctions on Russia in connection with the annexation of the Crimea.