AKIPRESS.COM - Four-time Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Sunday the Crimean people had made a democratic choice to split from Ukraine and hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin as the world's greatest political leader.

Earlier this month, Berlusconi became the most prominent Western politician to visit the Black Sea peninsula, which was annexed by Russia last year in a move that has driven a wedge between Moscow and Washington.

Pro-Russian separatists are fighting the Kiev government in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that will most likely be raised at a meeting on Monday in New York between U.S. President Barack Obama and Putin.

Berlusconi, who has long had a close relationship with Putin, criticized Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis for hurting Italian businesses. He called the 2014 Crimean referendum "democratic" and "valid".

"Eighty-seven percent of Crimean citizens voted, 93 percent voted to cede from Ukraine, voted to be an autonomous republic, voted to become part of the Russian Federation," Berlusconi said in a speech in northern Italy broadcast on television, reports Reuters.