Vladimir Putin said that Crimea is not Russian because the Russians came and "grabbed something."

Instead it is Russian "because the population only through a referendum asked to be received in Russia," he said.

"Crimea is ours... Why is it ours? Not because we came and grabbed something," Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai debating club.

"Democracy rules here. What is democracy?" It is the power of the people. How is it checked? Through referendums, elections, and so on. People came out to the referendum in Crimea and voted: 'we want to be a) - independent, the next step - we will be a part of the Russian Federation'," explained the Russian president, Sputnik reports.

Putin also compared this situation with the proclamation of Kosovo's independence, when the decision was made without a referendum, based on a vote in the assembly (in Pristina), which was then agreed to by all those who supported the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

"Let's talk about it, look at the UN documents and see what the UN Charter is, which writes about the right of nations to self-determination. We will endlessly discuss it. But we proceed from the will of people living in this territory," Putin concluded.