July 27, 2018

Kremlin site drops Putin’s admission that Moscow organized Crimean referendum

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Donald Trump’s correction of the record of his remarks in Helsinki about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections has attracted a great deal of attention, much of it skeptical. But, so far, there has been less attention to a similar “correction” by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

In his remarks at the joint press conference in Helsinki, the Kremlin leader said in response to a question about Crimea, “President Trump’s position is well-known, and he maintains it. He speaks about the illegality of joining Crimea to the Russian Federation” (kremlin.ru/events/president/news/58017). 

 “We have a different point of view. We consider that we conducted the referendum in strict correspondence with international law and the U.N. Charter. For Russia,” Mr. Putin added, “this question is closed.” 

But Russia’s Insider portal has called attention to the fact that the official Kremlin website has modified the Russian president’s words. It has dropped the word “we” throughout, lest there be any notion that Moscow was behind the Crimean referendum rather than that the vote was an expression of the free will of the Crimean population (theins.ru/news/110464).

In Helsinki and quite possibly just like his opposite counterpart on a different issue, Mr. Putin let slip his real view – one that is closer to the truth: Moscow orchestrated the referendum to ratify its military seizure of Ukrainian territory. However, once back in Moscow, certainly with his approval, the record has been “corrected” to reflect Moscow’s official position rather than reality.

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