This article originally appeared at InterPressNews
If we take the referendum into account, Crimea is not annexed, – said Democratic Movement leader Nino Burjanadze on Palitra TV in response to a question about who Crimea belongs to.
“Whose territory is Crimea on today? Which jurisdiction is active in Crimea? Let’s ask our population. Today, even Ukrainians admit that Crimea is Russian territory. It is a fact that Crimea is now a territory of Russia. By the way, this is a fact both de-facto and de-jure, whether we like it or not.
When I made a statement about it, it was not an assessment, but simple statement of a fact. For example, despite whether I like it or not, prosecution against Adeishvili is suspended, it is a fact,”- she said.
According to her, she has always been against changing countries’ borders and that’s why she opposed the recognition of Kosovo.
“If we recognize Kosovo, we must recognize Crimea too. I could see that revision of boundaries would be a problem, given the issues of Abkhazia and Ossetia,” she said.
As for the differences between Crimea and Kosovo, and the fact that ethnic cleansing took place in the latter, she said Russians had an interesting argument about it. They said: “Did we have to wait until Crimeans would be massacred?!” Burjanadze claimed there really was a danger of it and Ukraine made a mistake that was used by Russia very well.