OK, lets dissect this:
1. Before the crisis there were around 10k troops there.
2. They were to stay STRICTLY in the base designated. Didn't happen.
3. ANY and all movements were to be sanctioned by Ukraine defence ministry. Didn't happen. AND putler can bark all he wants - defence ministry WAS available for contact and did NOT grant the right for movements.
4. The forces were INCREASED to 25k (or roughly that) - again - possible, but ONLY with explicit agreement by Ukraine.
Thats already a far more interesting response to my statement than the usual name calling, thanks for your input.
On that topic:
Russian troops inside Crimea was at 15k at the peak of Crimean crisis. 25k was the maximum allowed. They never exceeded it.
I would be interested in finding information on what was the exact legal aspects of the agreement between Ukraine and Russian:
- increase/decrease of garrisoned troops to be validated by the president of Ukraine? (remember, maidan removed the people of power in Ukraine)
- to be strictly garrisoned in the bases themselves, forbidden to move outside? How do they eat, drills and move from barracks to ports, in helicopters? And how do you know if they moved out or not?
Then if they really increased the troops without legal accord, and they moved out of their boundaries in Crimea, you still have to prove the final point : did they actually participate in the Crimean crisis?
The mainstream agreed on fact that "Russian did it 100%" is only the extreme opposite bullshit than "Russian did nothing, 100% innocent".
Sorry to weight you down with fact-checking so much, I would really enjoy having a neutral debate somewhere down this thread...
What is also interesting, is how when Crimean crisis started, all EU/US media titled "Russia is invading Crimea with troops" with footage of their men and equipment, even though those soldiers
were garrisoned in Crimea because they have military bases under contract with Ukraine, thus most of them were already there. One of the many non-cookie free world information laying around that will survive thanks to some people and their clever shortcuts with the truth.
Its far harder to prove that russian garrison participated in the crimean crisis than just going with the crowd and spouting things about the warmongering state of Russia and their fascist people, I will concede you this.
The problem is that you state information that everyone here already knows (that Russia was allowed 25000 military personel in Crimea Russian bases), hence the people you are talking with believe that your point is not this known information but that you interpret this information in some way and use this interpretation as an argument, which they don't agree with.
If only that was true Kafein
you only have to read past a few pages to check that you're far from the reality.
Quick witty joke: (Xant not allowed!)
EU french media on maidan: brave citizen fight peacefully to overthrow corrupt and represive ukraine government, to form new legitimate one.
EU french media on eastern ukraine: ukraine government sending soldiers to retake controls of the cities that fell to the pro-kremlin terrorists.
Word for word