State Duma Deputy Ruslan Balbek reacted to the statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the beginning of the “countdown to the liberation of Crimea”, noting that the Ukrainian leader “wrote the script, practiced in front of the mirror, and then went out in front of the audience and gave out another heresy”.
Earlier, Zelensky said that from today begins “the countdown to the liberation of Crimea,” promised to do everything possible to return the peninsula and expressed the hope that joint work with international partners would force the Russian Federation to sit down at the negotiating table.
“Perhaps President Zelensky received a standing ovation with his speech among the participants of the Crimean Platform, but his words are just a personal version of what is happening and the future – let’s say, the author’s fantasies that do not coincide with reality. Apparently, he wrote the script himself, practiced in front of the mirror, and then went out in front of the audience and gave out another heresy”, Balbek told RIA Novosti.
He said that the Crimean Platform is a club of hypocrites who tell the President of Ukraine what he wants to hear.
“Will they do something for this – I think not, the matter will not go beyond the political get-together. In any case, none of these figures will provoke Russia into military action. After all, all this was conceived not to return Crimea to Ukraine, but as an irritant. But we have already seen all sorts of “de-occupants of the peninsula” and have developed immunity to the nonsense that we hear from Kiev about Crimea”, the deputy concluded.
On Monday, the Ukrainian capital is hosting the Crimean Platform summit, initiated by Ukraine, to discuss the issue of “returning” control over Crimea to Kiev. As previously stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba, 44 countries and international organizations will take part in the summit. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the forum a sabbath, at which “the West will continue to nurture neo-Nazi, racist sentiments of the modern Ukrainian government.”Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum was held there in March 2014. Ukraine still considers Crimea to be its own, but temporarily occupied territory. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Crimea issue is “finally closed.”