24/ Shoigu’s medal “For the return of Crimea” has an interesting story. Its existence was denied until 2018, when Shoigu first wore in it public. The medal dates the start of the operation to seize Crimea as “20.02.14” – while Viktor Yanukovych was still the president of Ukraine.
Russian investigative journalists discovered that the contract for the medals was advertised as early as December 2013, only a month after the Euromaidan protests began in Kyiv, and were concluded on 13 January 2014, with Mosshtamp Plant LLC awarded the contract.
This suggests that Russia was planning to seize Crimea well before Yanukovych was deposed on 22 February, and probably intended to seize it whatever the outcome of the protests and the ‘referendum’. Russian propaganda had claimed Crimean was Russian since as early as 2001.
