MOSCOW - Russia was ready to put its nuclear forces on alert over the crisis in Crimea last year, such was the threat to Russian people there, President Vladimir Putin said in a documentary that aired on state TV on March 15 night.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
CNN: Putin says Russia was ready to put nuclear forces on alert over Crimea (VIDEO)
A woman looks at Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking as she watches an internet broadcast of the documentary \"Homeward Bound\", on March 15 in Moscow. Putin said he was ready to put the country's nuclear forces on alert as he sought to annex Crimea last year after the fall of a Moscow-backed government in Kiev. Speaking in a documentary aired on state TV in Russia on March 15, 2015, a year after the takeover of the Black Sea Peninsula from Ukraine, Putin showed the lengths he was willing to go to in order to protect Russian-speaking citizens of the province he considered a historic slice of Russia.
