Well personally, i have no problem that the crimean population has chosen to join the RF because they hope for a better future but i have a problem how it was done.
A better approach have would been if the crimean people had started some protests for more autonomy (even with some slighty pushes from Moscow) after the collapse of the ukrainian government.
if they had say no and had sent the police/army to put down the protest, then the crimeans had filled the victim role and the world had seen russian troops as protectors of the poor Crimea against the evil Ukraine.
Now it looks like big bad Russia bullies the little Ukraine, tells lies to the rest of the world (these are no russian troops xaxaxa) and wonders why everyone is pissed.
From the past
it would have been preferable if pro-russians had been starting the same kind of protest without the help of russia military, because it decreases the legitimacy of such protests.
But anyway, what you forget to point out is that there is indeed some protests ongoing in Ukraine-controlled regions, protests in Donetsk/Kharkiv/Louhansk etc are of the same caliber (althought not in size) of what was done in Maidan for the exact same reason (government not representing them, occupying/destroying administrative buildings and protesting in the streets).
Those protests were completely ignored by the mass media (except when 2 pro-maidan were killed, then blackout again, a bit like what happened in Lviv during Maidan), and they are as we speak still fighting to pressure the local authorities/the government into giving in to their demands (which range from more autonomy/anticipated local elections/annulation of laws described as anti-russian; to the organisation of referendum to join Russia or become independant, just like Crimea).
Post-Berkut police arrests pro-russian activists in the streets and in their homes, there is no "nerve point" like the Maidan place and no big infrastructure behind them nor any spectacular borderline paramilitary groups throwing molotov and beating up policemen everywhere to show off on TV.
You can only read some articles here and there in very specialized media, on how Crimea annexation kind of gave more courage to the pro-russian activists (which began their movement a month ago) for the eastern province of Ukraine to start going in the same direction. What is sure is that the new government of Ukraine is fighting this separatist movement just as bad as Yanukovitch was fighting the pro-EU at Maidan. There is still no footage of bad bad policemen giving the stick to pro-russian demo but I dont have any doubt there will be some in the near future: cant wait to hear the reaction of the pro-EU of this thread and compare with what they said to justify Maidan protests
I think you were right from the beginning serr.
If you want to start this "Ukraine left USSR illegally" you should get ready to discussions how legally USSR appeared.
Thats exactly where we should take the discussion if you choose to continue to speak in illegal/legal terms. We can go back decades/centuries/millenium until we find the conclusion: a country is based on the ashes of the previous occupants. Kiev rus -> Duchy of Moscow -> Tsardom then Empire of Russia -> USSR -> Ukraine, thats just how history went.
2. About population of Crimea. Crimean native population are Crimean Tatars. Crimea being populated/controlled by Russians during 3 centuries is just something that you took out of the ocean. Russians terrorized native population of Crimea during the whole time Russians were there. At some point (like 10 years before giving Crimea to Ukraine) USSR deported ALL Crimean Tatars to central Asia and Siberia. Russians were the majority in Crimea only after USSR appeared. Also as far as I counted, Crimea was Russian for approximately 170 years (in fact less, because these years include all the revolutions, wars and occupations).
Totally agree, I will not try to defend USSR decisions about how they treated the Crimean region and Ukraine itself during their existence.
3 centuries is obvious gross approximation but fact is it began to impose their mark on it since the 18th century.
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