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Putin says Russia's actions in Crimea prevented conflict - RIA news agency

12/03/2015 - 10:23

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said that Russia's decisive actions in Crimea a year ago were to prevent a conflict similar to the one that followed later in east Ukraine, the state agency RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea after a March 16, 2014, referendum on the peninsula in support of joining Russia.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Christian Lowe)