"I got phone calls, threats, told that I would be put in jail, that they would kill me, that they would tear me apart," Poklonskaya noted in an interview published on the one-year anniversary of her appointment.
"Staff from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office would call. They said openly and directly that if I left the Crimean Prosecutor's Office they would consider it a voluntary renunciation from criminal activity. If not, a car filled with Spetsnaz [special forces] was already on the way to arrest me, to throw me in a prison cell. I told them that I would rather sit in a jail cell than serve fascists," the Prosecutor explained.
In early March, Poklonskaya told Republic of Crimea head Sergei Aksyonov that she would be ready to serve as prosecutor in the new government. She was appointed acting Prosecutor General March 11. On March 25, following the accession referendum, Russian General Prosecutor Yuri Chaika officially created the post of Prosecutor General of the Crimean Republic. A day later, she was listed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs as a "fugitive from authorities in a pre-trial investigation." Poklonskaya was officially sworn into the post on May 7, 2014.
"I did not feel afraid; I had been tasked with a great responsibility," Poklonskaya explained. "I shrugged off the fear; I would have time for it later. But first I would have to do everything I've been tasked with, and only then be afraid. A great deal had to be done in order to mobilize people, and to show that we were [supporting] the right cause."
