Yup. The voters decided that and we can argue til we’re blue in the face whether this referendum should have been held under other circumstances.
Nevertheless, the result represents a new geopolitical reality. Whether Kiev and the West come to terms with it is their problem. But its clear Crimea is gone to Russia for good now.
I assume there were international observers, and we’ll be hearing more about how “fair” the results were.
Something that hasn’t gotten a lot of mention is that Ukraine is a basket case economically and politically.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that a good many in Ukraine would vote to be part of Russia simply because it is at present a reasonably stable state. Especially if they didn’t have longstanding emotional ties to Ukraine.
After all, Ukraine has only been an independent state for less than 25 years. Not a lot of time to work up a tremendous amount of patriotism.