DISINFO: Moscow is seeking to confront the West's hostile approach
SUMMARY
Relations between Russia and Western countries, including the United States, have deteriorated as a consequence of the Ukrainian crisis and the Crimean Peninsula’s accession to Russia in March 2014, and sanctions against Russia. For its part, Moscow is seeking to confront this hostile Western approach and to restore normal relations with the West.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea and the dismissal of Russian disinformation as an expression of Western "Russophobia". Crimea is a part of Ukraine and was illegally annexed by Russia. In 2014, Russian troops obliged the parliament of Crimea to organise a referendum, which was illegitimate under international law, and then formally annexed the peninsula and brought it under Russian territorial control. No international body recognises the so-called referendum, announced on 27 February 2014 and held on 16 March 2014. A year after the illegal “return”, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum. Sanctions were first introduced in June 2014 in response to the attempts to deliberately undermine Ukraine’s territorial integrity and destabilise the country. Other EU measures in place in response to the crisis in Ukraine include economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy and individual restrictive measures. For the EU's statement on the sixth anniversary of Crimea annexation see here. In August 2017, the US imposed sanctions on Russia over its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, its annexation of Crimea, and its involvement in Syria’s civil war. At that time, sanctions were introduced against entities doing business with Russian military or intelligence agencies, companies involved in Russian off-shore oil projects, and those participating in Russian oil or gas pipeline construction within Russia. Later, In December 2018, the US imposed sanctions on Russian persons "in response to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, election interference, malicious cyber-enabled activities, human rights abuses, use of a chemical weapon, weapons proliferation, illicit trade with North Korea, and support to Syria". The first EU sanctions against Russia were introduced on 17 March 2014, before MH17 was shot down. The first bans and asset freezes against persons involved in actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity followed Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. Later, in view of Russia's actions destabilising the situation in eastern Ukraine, the EU imposed economic sanctions in July 2014 and reinforced them in September 2014. In March 2015, the European Council linked the duration of those economic restrictions to the complete implementation of the Minsk agreements. Read similar claims such as Crimea’s reunification with Russia was legal, or that historically Crimea was a Russian land, and that Crimea became part of Russia after the events of 2014 in Ukraine and that EU and Nato do nothing but blame Russia for propaganda.