Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that the situation with the spread of the coronavirus in Russia is under control, TASS reported.

He spoke during his visit to Crimea, where he met with representatives of the local public. He assured that the authorities were not hiding actual information about the spread of the virus in Russia, that the information provided by the Ministry of Health was "objective and operational - as the institutions themselves have." There is no need to believe "any fake news" on this issue. "One does this unconsciously and another consciously, in order to instill distrust of what the authorities are doing at the regional, federal and municipal levels to cause panic," the Russian president said.

Talking about the forthcoming all-Russian referendum on the constitutional amendments on April 22, Putin said he would hold "all precautionary measures", but suggested that "if the situation is unfavorable from an epidemiological point of view, the vote could be delayed for later".

He nevertheless expressed confidence that "on April 22 all people will come (vote) and support the proposed constitutional amendments." Putin recalled that the 1993 constitution was adopted "under the difficult conditions of a sharp domestic political struggle, and now the country is living in a completely different reality."

According to him, in the name of a secure, prosperous future, Russian society must overcome the schisms of the past and move forward. Putin mentioned the October Revolution of 1917, which, he said, was a prologue to "a huge state tragedy that left millions dead," and the consequences that must be overcome.

Reflecting on what pace Russia could have developed if it had not been for these events, he pointed out that in 1914 the Russian economy was breaking at the highest rate in the world. "If this trend were maintained, the power of the Russian state would be simply enormous," Putin suggested, quoted by TASS.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine today expressed a "strong protest" over Putin's arrival on a working visit to the Crimean peninsula, which was forcibly torn from Ukraine and annexed by Russia in 2014 as a result of a referendum that Kyiv refuses to recognize.