Russian President Vladimir Putin said the final decision on the inclusion of Crimea and Sevastopol into Russia was made in regards to a sociological poll conducted in Crimea.
“I made my decisions after it became clear how people felt. We did
not prepare for such events. We could imagine how people felt, but we
didn’t know it for a fact,” Putin said during a meeting with All-Russia
Popular Front activists.
“The first sociological polls, which, let’s say directly, we
conducted secretly, but whose outcome was fairly close to the real
situation, made it clear that our line of behavior was right,” Putin
said.
He said that 80% of the people of Crimeans wanted to join Russia. “That figure increased even more at the referendum, when the process began developing,” Putin said, adding that this figure is amazing.
“If we didn’t know that the situation was the way it was, we would
not have acted the way we did, consistently and persistently,” Putin
said.
