MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin visited Crimea on Friday as Russia marked two years since annexing the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in a move that dramatically damaged its ties with the West.
The Kremlin strongman stopped over on the island of Tuzla to oversee progress on a $3-billion (2.66-billion-euro) bridge project connecting Russia to Crimea, a key link that Moscow hopes will further bind it to the isolated region.
Putin said the bridge’s construction — which he called a “historical mission” — should be completed by December 2018, and that the first direct link to the mainland was essential for bolstering Crimea’s …read more
Source: The Manila Times
