MOSCOW. April 21 (Interfax) - The Russian government will award the military servicemen who were deployed in Crimea during recent events, but their names will not be made public at least for some time, says Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I think we won't learn [their names] in the near future, but there will certainly be government awards," Putin said in an interview shown on the Rossiya television channel on Saturday.
Speaking during a Q&A session on Thursday, Putin had said that Russian military servicemen had been staying behind the back of the Crimean self-defense forces to help arrange a referendum in March. When the Saturday TV show host mentioned this, Putin replied, "Well, I have already hinted at this."
The president said he would view possible attempts to compare the presence of Russian servicemen in Crimea during the referendum with the counterterrorist operations in Russia's North Caucasus as absolutely incorrect.
"The difference is huge, and it consists in the fact that, in the North Caucasus, we faced aggression on the part of international terrorism. In fact, these were well-trained gangs put together, supplied and armed from abroad. This is a big difference," Putin said.
In reply to the host's remark that some Western policymakers might possibly interpret Putin's words about Russia's military presence in Crimea as if "the referendum had been held at Russian gunpoint," Putin said, "If we are honest and impartial, it should be clear to everybody that it's impossible to drive people out of their homes and force them to go to a polling station and vote at gunpoint, and [voter] turnout was 83%."