https://www.realclearhistory.com/historiat/2018/10/15/the_crimean_war_when_america_and_russia_were_friends_368.html#!
This is a major distraction.
But what is it a distraction from?
I went there in I think it was 2007-8. It is ethnically maybe 2/3 Russian, say 1/6 Tatar (purged by Stalin), and maybe 1/6 Ukrainian at that time. All the nice property on the south coast is owned by Russians. The Russian Navy was berthed in Sevastopol. Big old heavy ships.
The Charge of the Light Brigade was obviously suicide - fascinating site on the west end.
It did not feel like Ukraine at all - it felt like Russia.
Interesting…somehow these issues never go away. Not major in themselves, but expanded to critical mass by the participation of so many other interests.
It’s good to remember that Turkey was heavily involved then and has always been lurking at the back as a cause of European wars.
Something rather interesting happened a couple of years ago: the Patriarch of Constantinople recognized or confirmed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as an autocephalous (independent “self-headed”) church not under the Moscow patriarchate. The action seriously annoyed the Russian Orthodox Church (and Russia). This of course also involved all of our favorite players, that corrupt band of nationalist politicians that were enriching Hunter Biden and the Big Guy.
It’s not the key issue, but it is part of the background and the fact that the Patriarch of Constantinople very recently made a statement (considered provocative by the Russians) reaffirming the separation is worth noticing.
Once again, we see the usual European powers and Turkey, with the addition of the bumbling US, poking the bear.
Another thing to bear in mind is that any war that weakened Russia would strengthen or even give domination to China.
Specter Of World War III – Handiwork Of Washington’s Busy-Bodies And Hegemonists
By David Stockman
Stockman was a two-term Congressman from Michigan. He was also the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan.
After leaving the White House, Stockman had a 20-year career on Wall Street. He’s the author of three books:
The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed
The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America and
TRUMPED! A Nation on the Brink of Ruin… And How to Bring It Back
Mark
Russia does not need Crimea to have a warm water port.
Russia has a 400 some mile long coast along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Both of these Seas are connected by open water called the Taman Bay.
Google it yourself.
If Putin was smart he would invade Alaska.
While the history as Stockman tells it is true enough, it avoids mentioning that Catherine was not obtaining territory occupied by a majority of Russians. It took mass deportations of various peoples of the Crimea in order to “Russify” the territory. That was followed later on with more mass deportations by the Soviets in 1944. Why? Because the long established people of Crimea were Tartars, a Turkic people but not the same as the Ottomans who occupied Turkey. It is that ethnicity that got them deported from Crimea, out of Russian fear and insecurity that they may one day make league with the Turks of Turkey.
But the Tartars of Crimea had long before become a people that incorporated most all the groups living in the Crimea, including Greeks and others, though the Turkic language and culture became the language and culture of most all the Crimea communities - until the Ottoman empire sale to Catherine, and Catherine and later the Soviets had to “Russify” it. Once Catherine felt comfortable, the deportations ended. But the Soviets deported nearly all the Tartar communities of Crimea in 1944, not allowing any to return until 1989. Just something Stockman left out.