You're reading: Peskov: Crimean aspiration to join Russia its people’s initiative, not Kremlin’s

The question of a possible annexation of Crimea to Russia is not an amassing of land at the Kremlin's behest but a natural process, President's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

“This is not an amassing (of lands) in terms of the Kremlin’s initiative, it is a natural process of gathering compatriots around their center, around their historical homeland which is appealing, which instills confidence and can act as a serious guarantor of their safety and a prosperous future,” Peskov said in a special edition of the Sunday Night with Vladimir Solovyov which came out on the Rossiya One television on Friday.

He was responding to Solovyov’s question whether the claim that “the time is coming for amassing lands” is true.

“The land amassing in the style of the past centuries is not possible. Lands can be amassed not at the expense of the leading nation’s initiative, lands can be amassed under the magnet principle. As soon as some nation becomes stable, as soon as it starts having development prospects that are obvious for all around it, then, naturally, everyone around are beginning to gravitate towards this nation,” the president’s press secretary said.

He said he would not use the ‘land amassing’ expression in the case of Ukraine. “That Crimea made the decision to join Russia as its constituent region is the initiative of the Crimeans and the Crimean parliament, and in one week’s time it will be either confirmed or not confirmed as a result of the people’s vote, the most democratic procedure – the plebiscite,” Peskov said.