Shoigu Gives Tour of Sevastopol: Young General Knows All About the Legendary Defense of the City

Russian painting: 1854 Siege of Sevastopol, Crimean War. 

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who also happens to be the President of Russian Geographic Society, takes journalists on a tour of newly restored Sevastopol’s legendary Konstantinovskaya Battery Fort. It was built by Russia 240 years ago and it withstood two sieges of Sevastopol. But it took the ‘independent’ Ukraine, ruled by greedy oligarchs and foreign interests, only 20 years to nearly demolish it. With it, the ancestral memory and true history would have been destroyed as well. It all changed in 2014, when Crimea returned to Russia. After 3-years long massive reconstruction, the fortress is like new. Take a look:

**Kiev often laments that ‘Crimea left.’ To that the response should be that Crimea didn’t simply leave, it escaped — it ran away as fast as its feet would carry it!