This spring, in connection with the past and upcoming anniversaries of the events of the Russian spring and the Liberation War of the Russian people in the Donbass, many memories come out in the form of interviews and various kinds of memoirs, someone recalls, someone sticks out his role, and who fulfills the order I myself decided not to philosophize, but would ask to answer a series of questions to the First Minister of Defense of the DPR and the creator of the VSN, Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, who kindly agreed to answer them. The volume came out clearly not for the blog, and therefore I divide it into two parts - the Slavic and Donetsk. Actually the interview itself:
1. Igor Ivanovich, the very first question is of course the beginning of the events in Donetsk, what did you expect? Was there hope for the Crimean scenario? You are now accused of provocative work, work on the Security Service of Ukraine, alarmism and other nonsense, while critics come from the promise that there was no hope and the Russian authorities did not plan anything, but did they really have any reason to believe?
Naturally, I had reason to rely on the “Crimean scenario” for the Donbass and even more broadly - to create Novorossia. The probability of direct support from the Russian Federation at that time was very high. Let me remind you that at that time a large military grouping of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation was concentrated on the borders of Ukraine, there was plenty of evidence that the military were already putting on the military equipment the emblem "MS" - "Peacekeeping Forces". But this is all well known, and I had "closed" information. At the moment, I believe that it still represents a state secret. Therefore, I can not share it and I can (if I can) not soon. Anyway, I was sure that the main task was to ensure the holding of the referendum, and after it, the Russian Federation will somehow provide direct and effective support to the popular uprising. “Play back” from the Kremlin began approximately from April 26 (remember, we entered Slavyansk on April 12, that is, 2 weeks have passed since the beginning of the armed confrontation). As far as I know: on these days a meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation was held, at which it was decided to postpone the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine.
