Majority of Russians Support Reunification With Crimea, Poll Shows

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The majority of Russians (86%) believe that the 2014 decision to incorporate the Crimean peninsula into Russia was correct, and 56% of those surveyed feel proud about the reunification of the territories, a poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) showed on Saturday.

According to the survey, 53% of those respondents who find the decision correct said that Crimea was a native Russian land, 9% of those interviewed said the decision was stipulated by the will of Crimean residents, and 6% of the respondents said the move was connected with the population's nationality.

Meanwhile, 14% of those sampled expressed admiration when asked about their opinion on the incorporation of Crimea into Russia, while 5% of the surveyed said the decision caused negative emotions, the poll said.

The survey added that 71% of the respondents found the reunification beneficial for Russia, and 76% said that the region started to develop more successfully after it was incorporated into the country.

The all-Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted on March 14 among 1,600 adult Russians, with a margin of error not exceeding 2.5%.

Crimea became part of independent Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and was incorporated into Russia after a 2014 referendum.

Crimea was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR by a decree adopted by the USSR Supreme Soviet on February 19, 1954. The decree is thought to be the personal initiative of Nikita Khrushchev, then general secretary of the Central Committee of the USSR Communist Party. The inhabitants of the Crimean Peninsula had attempted to hold an independence referendum for several times, however, that was deemed illicit by the central authorities.