Alexei was asked many times about the annexation of Crimea. You could easily find many of his public statements on this.
To wrap it up very shortly, we recognize that the annexation of Crimea was unlawful. Putin has committed a crime against Russia and Russian national interests. He violated the international agreements, which caused sanctions to be applied against Russia—undermined credibility of our country in international co-operation and so on—after he publicly violated Russian obligations toward Crimea, according to the Budapest memorandum of 1994.
Now, not all of us.... When a crime is committed and when a crime is recognized, it could easily be reimbursed. When someone kills another person, we could punish the killer, but we are unable to revive the victim. Putin has created a huge problem for the world, which probably will remain a huge problem, like northern Cyprus, or the West Bank, or many other territories for the future. I mean, now there is the fact that there are two million Russian citizens suddenly in Crimea. Their opinion has to be taken into consideration.
We consider that maybe the future government of Russia and future government of Ukraine, with some international mediators, will be able to build some process to deal with the status of Crimea. It is an unlawful annexation, but now it looks like there is no simple way out of the situation that Putin created.
With regard to the eastern Ukraine, it's very clear. Putin's Russia committed crimes against humanity, sponsoring the civil war that has taken the lives of 13,000 people. It's a crime. Russia has to stop supporting paramilitaries in the Donbas region, has to act with agreement according to the Minsk agreements that Russia has signed to give border control to Ukraine, to stop supporting the separatist movements in Donbas, and then the situation will get back to normal. That's quite clear for us.