and Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar. It will be home to the representatives of all the peoples living there. But he will never Bandera'. Putin assured that Russia will not seek confrontation with the West and the East, and stressed that Russia and Ukraine — are one people. Ukraine will continue to live millions of Russian citizens, which means that Russia will always defend their interests. In the speech Putin also insisted that Russia had no intention to invade other regions of Ukraine, saying "we don't want a division of Ukraine, we don't need that." Putin's speech lasted 45 minutes. During the speech, Putin used the term "natsional-predateli" ("national-traitors") which is a calque from the German term Nationalverräter. Reactions Glenn Kessler from The Washington Post reported that several of Putin's statements were "dubious and false." In particular, he disputed Putin's claims that the referendum was legal and unrigged and that the Supreme Soviet had no authority to transfer Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. He also accused Putin of making a false equivalency between the annexation and the United States's support of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia. Daisy Sindelar of Radio Free Europe criticized Putin for minimizing historic and current Soviet and Russian persecution of ethnic minorities, denying the legitimacy of Viktor Yushchenko's government after the Orange Revolution, and falsely stating that Ukraine was planning to join NATO before the annexation. Bob Dreyfuss of The Nation noted the speech's "aggrieved evocation of Russia's history and its religious, Russian Orthodox overtones" and that "by annexing Crimea, Putin is almost certainly fueling the fire of the most extreme nationalist elements in Kiev. Unless the situation changes soon, what had been a dangerous minority of radical-right elements in the new Kiev government could gain huge new momentum, making Putin's inflated claims a self-fulfilling prophecy" In a BBC News article, Bridget Kendall called Putin's pledge to protect Russian minorities in the former Union republics "A veiled reminder for other former Soviet republics with Russian-speaking minorities to send a message that, as in Ukraine, Mr Putin views Russian compatriots there as part of a single Russian nation - and therefore conceivably might make moves to ensure their protection too, if he felt they needed it," citing Moldova's Transnistria and the Baltic states as specific examples. In an interview with Tamara Zamyatina on ITAR-TASS, Colonel-General Valery Manilov praised Putin's speech, saying "Vladimir