Putin mulled putting nuclear forces 'on alert' over Crimea

[WorldNews]

View attachment 18954​

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to put the country's nuclear forces on alert as he sought to annex Crimea last year after the fall of a Moscow-backed government in Kiev. In a nearly three-hour documentary aired on state TV in Russia on Sunday a year after the takeover of the Black Sea Peninsula from Ukraine, Putin showed the lengths he was willing to go to in order to protect Russian-speaking citizens of the province he considered a historic slice of Russia. The documentary, "Homeward Bound", features interviews with Putin and reconstructions in which the Russian leader presents himself as the saviour of Crimea, forced to deploy elite troops to prevent a war with "nationalists" who took power in Kiev. From extracting and saving fallen president Viktor Yanukovych's life to orchestrating a military intervention, Putin was personally involved step-by-step in the events that were seen by the West as an illegal occupation.

Continue reading...