Kremlin Sought Annexation of Crimea Before Ukrainian Government’s Collapse, Russian Paper Says

MOSCOW — The Russian government laid plans to annex Crimea and invade southeastern Ukraine weeks before the government fell in Kiev, a Russian newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing a Kremlin memo.

Russia has long contended that it acted without premeditation in Crimea, seeking to protect Russian speakers who were under threat of attack and to stave off what it suspected was an attempt by NATO to move its forces into the region.

A report in Novaya Gazeta, one of the few independent voices still publishing in Russia, said that the Kremlin had concluded by Feb. 4, 2014, long before President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine resigned, that he would fall, and that Russia would have an opportunity to annex Crimea.

The Kremlin said in a memo that Mr. Yanukovych’s presidency was “bankrupt” and that the central administration was paralyzed,. Novaya Gazeta said.

There has been a kind of unspoken contest in Ukraine about whether the economic situation or the low-grade war was the worst news, and the economy seemed to edge out the conflict on Wednesday.

With the Ukrainian currency falling precipitously against the dollar, the central bank on Wednesday banned banks from buying foreign currency for the rest of this week, Reuters reported.

Maïa de la Baume contributed reporting from Paris.

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