Putin’s narrative on Crimea annexation takes an evolutionary leap

It

started off denying any military involvement in Ukraine, insisting

that it was the people of Crimea who decided on their future.

After the secessionist referendum on March 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin shifted his views, and said that Russian soldiers backed Crimean

self-defense units to prevent a conflict.

But

most recently, Putin revealed even more details of his military

operation in Crimea, admitting in a preview for an upcoming

documentary that that it was all carefully planned ahead of time.

The

documentary, which is called “Crimea: The Road Back to the

Motherland,” will be shown on Russian state-owned Rossiya-1 TV

channel on March 15, at 9 p.m. Kyiv time. In the meantime, Ukraine is

planning to send the trailer to the International Criminal Court,

according to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Putin

said that he personally oversaw the planning of the takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. At the same time, international think tanks are

coming up with their own research on Russian involvement in Crimea.

The British Royal United Services Institute said in its report on

March 10 that the Kremlin had been preparing its military operations

in Ukraine methodically and extensively.

At

least 28 military units were required to generate the approximately

90,000 troops stationed on the Ukrainian-Russia border and within

Crimea in spring 2014, the report says.

The

story of Crimean annexation

Russia’s annexation of Crimea, formalized on March 18, 2014,

started off when camouflaged and armed men with no insignia showed up

on the peninsula in late February. They were dubbed “polite green

men.” Putin initially said they were not Russian.

During

a press conference on March 4, 2014, Putin said that “there were

local Crimean self-defense groups” and Russia didn’t take part in

their training. He assured journalists that Russian troops could

have been deployed to Crimea to protect the citizens only if they

were “in danger” and Russia had no plans to annex the peninsula.

His

statements went against the footage that UkrStream TV made the same

day, which showed dozens of soldiers walking in the Crimean city of Kerch,

home to a number of military bases. At least five military trucks

were seen on the background. One of the soldiers, an Asian-looking

man in his 30s, told the Ukrainian journalists that they are “Russian

servicemen.” He said they were deployed to patrol the territory and

to prevent terrorist acts.

A Russian soldier is interviewed about the invasion of Crimea on March 4, 2014.

Even

though Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said it was

“nonsense,” Putin changed his story just a month later.

“Our

soldiers were standing behind the Crimean self-defense units,”

Putin said during a press conference in April. “They conducted

themselves very properly, firmly and professionally. It was the only

way possible to guarantee that the referendum will be free and fair.”

But

in his latest interview to Rossiya-1, Putin said that Russia planned

a special operation on returning Crimea long before the referendum

was held. He talked about a specific planning event that went on until the early morning of Feb. 23, 2014, when he told his special services

that they “have to start the work on return of Crimea to Russia.”

He

also noted that the ultimate goal was not annexation per se, but

a chance for the Crimean citizens “to express their opinion

openly.”

“We

can not leave the area to its

own devices, under

the roller of

the nationalists,”

Putin said, adding that the results of the secret poll that was

carried out in late February indicated that it was the Crimean

population’s desire to join Russia. He said 75 percent of those

polled shared the sentiment.

“Then

I was sure that when time comes even more people will back the

decision,” Putin said. “And we did something that has to be

done.”

Gleb

Pavlovsky, a former political consultant for the Kremlin, says

Putin’s whole narrative on Crimea has lacked strategy. “Basically

it shows that all the events were spontaneous and were made

on-the-go, even though I’m pretty sure that Russian General Staff

had the plans of military operations,” he told the Kyiv Post.

Pavlovskiy

is also certain that the success of the Crimean operation came as a

surprise even for Putin, and now it’s obvious that he wants to run

the show, that’s why he revealed some of the details of the

operation.

Even

though the annexation was nearly bloodless, it turned out to be not

as easy as Kremlin had planned.

In

a televised interview on Jan. 24 Igor Girkin, a former

defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic,

said that the local parliament members were basically held at

gunpoint to support the annexation. “Militants

literally had to gather Crimean deputies in the hall so they would

vote,” Girkin said then.

Just

days after the Crimea became a part of the Russian Federation, the

nation’s defense ministry issued medals for “liberation” of the

peninsula with the inscription “For the return of Crimea 20.02.14

-18. 03.14.” The first date minted on the medal preceded even the

appearance of Russian troops in Crimea, causing speculation that the

annexation was long in the works. Russian special troops first

appeared in Crimea on Feb. 27, 2014, when they stormed the local government headquarters.

Coincidentally,

Feb. 20 was one of the bloodiest days on Maidan Nezalezhnosti during

last year’s EuroMaidan Revolution, when 49 activists were killed during a

standoff with the police.

Viktor

Yanukovych’s escape

Ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s escape

from Ukraine has also evolved significantly over the past year.

“I

don’t agree that Yanukovych ran away,” Putin said on April 17,

2014. “He was forced to leave and went to the regions. And as soon

as he left the administrative buildings were taken over in Kyiv.”

But

now Putin claims that he spent all night on Feb. 22 trying to rescue Yanukovych, who tried to reach the Donbas first, but his

ultimate destination was Crimea.

“I

have invited security officials including ones of the Ministry of

Defense and told them that they need to save the life of Ukraine’s

president – otherwise he would have been overthrown,” Putin

explained, adding that they were ready to save Yanukovych either

by land, by sea or by air. Putin admitted that his special services

“tracked” Yanukovych’s moves using his phone, and deployed

machine guns to move him to Russia.

“Heavy

machine guns were mounted so that there wouldn’t be much discussion

about it.” Putin said the operation was finished at about 7

a.m. on the morning of Feb. 23, 2014.

However,

an investigation published by the New York Times in January found

that Yanukovych fled Kyiv because he was deserted by his allies from

once ruling Party of Regions and security service officials. It is

based on the number of the interviews with riot police, security

officials and senior Ukrainian politicians.

In the preview of the new documentary on Crimea, Putin said that he decided to take over the peninsula after Yanukovych left the country. He failed to explain the connection, though.