A change of political elites in Western countries is required for the recognition of Crimea as Russian, said Waldemar Gerdt, a member of the Bundestag from the Alternative for Germany party.
According to the politician, the refusal of Western countries to recognize the peninsula as part of Russia is due to the fact that otherwise they will have to abandon plans to expand NATO to the east, as well as admit the complete defeat of their military-political doctrine.
The situation will change as soon as the political elite in power changes in Western countries, Gerdt said. He also stressed that the referendum on the inclusion of Crimea in Russia was held in accordance with international law, therefore, to consider Crimea an annexed and occupied territory is political speculation.
“During the Crimean referendum, all procedures of international law were observed. The referendum was quite legitimate, and if someone had questions about how many percent were in favor, how many were against, then the subsequent elections to the authorities showed almost the same result, “RIA Novosti quoted him on Tuesday, March 16.
At the same time, Gerdt noted that Ukraine has nothing to do with the inhabitants of the peninsula, since if they considered the Crimeans “their people”, they would not turn off the water and would not impose sanctions.
“(Kiev) did everything possible to alienate the people from the mainland of Ukraine. There is no way back for Crimea and there will never be, ”he concluded.
On March 15, the head of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, said that Ukraine never had legal rights to Crimea, the peninsula has always belonged to Russia.
Crimea returned to Russia following the 2014 referendum. 96.77% of the region’s residents and 95.6% of the voters of Sevastopol were in favor of joining. The procedure was carried out in strict accordance with international law. However, Kiev still considers the peninsula to be its temporarily occupied territory. Moscow argued that the issue of the subject’s ownership was closed forever.