Worth repeating..wish I had thought of this.
“Worth repeating..”
Until someone explains the Putin’s fan club that any region had a God given right to separate from the Soviet Union at the first opportunity.
Ukraine’s separation from USSR in 1991 wasn’t a military takeover by a neighbouring state.
Crimea on the other hand, was invaded by Russian troops. They can have as many referendums as they want and then some, but a vote at gun point is not considered legitimate. Generally speaking, of course, because there have been totalitarian regimes who would consider this democratic.
Separatists in Crimea have been a small minority for the past 20 years and perhaps Maidan in Kiev had a drastic fundamental effect on how Crimeans see themselves in Ukraine. I suspect it didn’t, so personally, I would’ve liked to have seen what Crimea’s choice is today, but we’ll never know.