09.03.2023.

Vitaly Portnikov: Putin on Crimea - who is the Russian president deceiving?

In his message to the Federal Assembly of Russia, Vladimir Putin, of course, could not fail to mention Crimea. However, this time the occupied Crimean peninsula appeared in his speech not as an example of a happy return to the "home port", but as an object of a possible Ukrainian attack - after Donbas, of course.
By constantly repeating the theme of the "Ukrainian attack" on Crimea, the Russian president probably just wants to divert attention from the real - Russian - attack on the Crimean peninsula. After all, in 2014, it was not Ukrainian troops that landed on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, but Russian troops on the Crimean peninsula.
This is not the time of Alexander Turchynov, who at that time was the president of Ukraine and said, for example, that there are only "polite little greens" in Sochi and that there are no Ukrainian soldiers there. No, we heard this lie about the absence of the Russian military contingent from Putin and other Russian leaders. As they later heard that Russian troops were in Crimea, of course they weren't, but their presence was deliberately concealed to give the occupation of the peninsula a sign of "legitimacy" that only Russia could understand. So who attacked whom?
All these incredible stories could look real until February 24, 2022. Then, in the presentation of Putin and Russian propagandists, even the "Crimean Platform" forum did not resemble a political discussion about ways to restore the international law that Russia despises, but a preparation for "aggression " to Russia.
But after February 24, 2022, there should be no doubt about who is the aggressor and who planned the attack. And the occupation of Crimea itself looks like only the first step in the implementation of the plan to occupy the whole of Ukraine or at least half of the country - the creation of a bridgehead, an "unsinkable aircraft carrier", without establishing control over which a "special operation" to destroy the neighboring country is carried out, it seems that the Kremlin he just couldn't. That is why the occupied Crimea is perceived as such in today's world - not as a "holy" peninsula of Russian history, but as a springboard for the attack and destruction of Ukraine. And now – which is also important – to destabilize the situation in the Black Sea basin.
Who are Vladimir Putin's Crimean statements intended for? The Russians don't seem to care about Crimea right now. The country, whose many inhabitants in 2014 could naively expect that everything would end with "Crimea", lives in fear of the continuation of the war, economic and social troubles. And even people who continue to support Putin and trust television, I'm sure, it's not sweet now.
The West knows for sure that the Ukrainian leadership did not plan an attack on Donbas or Crimea. After 2014, both presidents of Ukraine - Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky - have maintained a consistent position regarding diplomatic tools for restoring the country's territorial integrity. And there is simply no political sense in these accusations.
But Vladimir Putin, apparently, simply cannot find a reasonable explanation of the reasons that would allow him to attack Ukraine. He cannot simply declare from the podium of the Russian Parliament that he wants to occupy Ukraine in the way he previously occupied Crimea and Donbas. That's why he has to twist, twist, twist - and, I think, realize that no one believes him, not even in the hall where the representatives of the Russian elite have gathered, because even in that hall, hardly anyone believed in the Ukrainian attack and few expected that Putin would start a brutal war against Ukraine. Vladimir Putin is trying to deceive the Russians, Ukraine, the West and his officials. But isn't he most mistaken?