Posted on 03/16/2014 5:16:44 PM PDT by mandaladon
Crimean voters on Sunday overwhelmingly backed a referendum to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, in an election denounced by the United States, Europe and the Ukrainian government as illegal and destabilizing.
Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered above jubilant crowds after the vote, which election officials said stood at 95 percent with more than half of the ballots counted.
The vote, the final results of which were not expected until Monday, offered voters on the strategic Black Sea peninsula the choice of seeking annexation by Russia or remaining in Ukraine with greater autonomy.
Opponents of secession appeared to largely stay away Sunday, denouncing the vote as a cynical power play/land grab by Russia. But turnout was reported to be well above the 50 percent that would make the referendum binding -- and secession was expected to be approved overwhelmingly.
"We want to go back home, and today we are going back home," said Viktoria Chernyshova, a 38-year-old businesswoman. "We needed to save ourselves from those unprincipled clowns who have taken power in Kiev."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Here’s my political theory: when Americans can no longer tell freedom from slavery (such as in the case of the Maidan uprising against a post-Communist oligarchy), it is little wonder that they elect a Communist as their President and in face of that one’s obvious failures, elect another Communist as mayor of New York City.
There is at least one poster defending what we did to the Serbs. My point is that we look like fools to the world when we say it was ok when we did it, but now Putin does it and it’s a huge tragedy - which some believe we need to jump in and stop.
Then you must be not able to read well today. Try again.
how bout this Putin thug lover
http://nationalpostnews.com/ukraine-the-haze-of-propaganda/
Go visit Putin troll .
Putin calls you a Useful idiot !
After that we can visit the many mass graves in Rwanda where not one country stepped in to stop a crime of humanity.
Then I will try very hard to get excited about this Crimea thing...I promise.
And you know this as fact? You have family or friends there or have visited Ukraine or Crimea?
Aren’t you a snide troll.
Paulbot ?..
Your ignorance of history is typical of the troll trade here.
Useful idiots are what Putin and his henchman depend on.
Stop calling FReepers names. You don’t play well with others. And it appears English is not your first language.
Or, maybe you’re just drunk.
If this is so all fired horrible, maybe you should go join the Crimean underground.
I was hugely upset when we bombed Serbia and just as upset about the invasion of Georgia, where I have many close friends btw. I often wire money to a friend in Tbilisi and just did so last month. I dearly love the Georgian people.
I have spent a few months living in Moscow and been to Tbilisi and some of eastern Georgia, too. I spent a wonderful day at Bodbe once that I will never forget.
You must have missed where I posted that Putin was a bully and could be a tyrant. I am betting I know a great deal more about that than you do. Ten years ago I spoke Russian pretty darn well, but I have lost much of it since that time.
We have neither the resources or hard cash to get involved in Ukraine, although I thank God for our assistance to Georgia under our past wonderful president.
Putin is what he is. It's nothing new that he has become an energy bully to much of Europe. Tell it to Lithuania.
The reality is that China has been doing horrid things to the Tibetan people, trying to eliminate their very existence and culture for a long long time. Etc, etc, etc. What have we done about that? Why not?
Just what do you think we can do to stop Putin?
Let's just get all the Russian imports off the shelves and bulldoze them with lots of media attention.
No, it's a good political move, and here is why.
If your friends and your foes are mixed together, you cannot apply any pressure onto that country without hurting both. Your influence among your friends takes damage. At the same time you cannot reward your friends without also rewarding your opponents.
What you do is you separate them. Your friends then can be managed as your friends, and your enemies can be managed as your enemies - with completely different sets of tools. Take the price on gas, for example - Crimea will get it for a song, while the rest of Ukraine will be paying what Putin tells them to pay.
Or take those NATO bases in Ukraine. Do you think Putin will allow them? The rest of Ukraine will fall to him if the politicians in Kiev just twitch in that direction. H*ll, what did the USA do when Soviet nukes showed up in Cuba? Do not expect anything less from this scenario either.
I do not believe that Putin actually needs Ukrainian land. What he needs is a neutral, stable country. The $hit hit the fan only when Ukraine experienced a political upheaval of dangerous proportions. You will tolerate your neighbor if he is just a little weird; however nobody would sit idle if the said neighbor attempts to set fire to his house - it's a stone throw from yours. This problem with Ukraine is far more fundamental than a mere desire of Putin to return Crimea.
If we could have our Monroe Doctrine, why couldn’t Russia have theirs’?
Remember we went into the Dominican Republic in 1965.
Now if Russia starts picking on NATO members, then we’ll have a whole other issue to contend with.
The Referendum had two ways of voting yes and no way of voting no. There are lots of Ukrainians in the Crimea who have been silenced. The banks are closed. Savings are losing value while the banks are closed. This episode matters a great deal.
He is already working on Moldova but he will never take the Poles.
Russia has a bunch more ports on Black Sea. However Sevastopol is an old, established base of Black Sea Fleet, with several convenient bays with controlled access. Compare to Novorossiysk that is open to the world and is not very good as a military base.
and is not going any further.
It is quite possible that more Ukrainian territories will want to join Russia. Maybe not today, but in a year or two, when the favorable economic conditions (that will be provided to Crimea) become very, very attractive. Today, though, the public opinion in Eastern Ukraine is not yet ready to join Russia, and no moves will be made to that end.
But regardless of what provinces are affected, it will be all done through a public vote, like today's referendum in Crimea. It will be perfectly democratic, and nobody will be able to object to that. Well, some do, but what kind of selective democracy do they preach? Don't the people have freedom of association? They are not slaves of Kievan boyars, you know...
How much have you had to drink today, or are you all wee-weed up like this normally?
Remember also, Russia has a Naval base in Syria, and with that country in chaos, the importance of the Black Sea is magnified.....and I still suspect they will ultimately make a play for a base in Cyprus.
Yes indeed, they do, and two weeks ago there was an election in North Korea where THE candidate Kim Jong Un received 100% votes, and to which information you will predictably respond with a "that's different"!
Have you been there, btw? The climate and food are beyond compare...sorry, reminiscing...I need to take a vacation that direction again soon.
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