That outraged Russian nationalists to no end. Russians were denied by the collusion of Yeltsin and Kravchuck their democratic right to rejoin Russia solely because Khruschev gave it as a “gift” to Ukraine and the ethnic Russian majority in Crimea would rather see region revert to Russian rule.
Interesting article about the history of Khrushchev’s “gift”....
http://english.pravda.ru/history/19-02-2009/107129-ussr_crimea_ukraine-0/