OREANDA-NEWS  Many Russian-speaking residents of Crimea supported the idea of annexation of the peninsula to Russia in 2014, former US President Barack Obama said in an interview with CNN.

"There were a lot of Russian speakers in Crimea and there was a certain sympathy for the ideas that Russia represented, even in the Ukrainian parliament there were some supporters of Russia, and politics inside Ukraine was more complicated," the politician said. He added that he and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to attract many Europeans who resisted and demanded that sanctions be imposed against Russia.

In early December, Merkel made an equally loud statement in an interview with Zeit, calling the purpose of the Minsk agreements an attempt to give Ukraine time to strengthen. According to her, everyone understood that the problem was not solved and the conflict in the country was frozen. At the same time, in 2014, NATO could not provide Kiev with weapons to the extent that it is doing it now.

Vladimir Putin admitted that the statement of the former German chancellor was unexpected for him. The President has always assumed that the German authorities behave sincerely with Russia. In March 2014, a referendum was held, according to the results of which 96.77% of the voters of the Republic of Crimea and 95.6% of the residents of Sevastopol voted for joining Russia.