Posted on 03/13/2015 2:04:19 PM PDT by Paid_Russian_Troll
Russia's quick and dirty annexation of Crimea, carried out under the watchful gaze of barely disguised Russian special forces, remains a bitter bone of contention a year on.
By the West it is regarded as an act of unilateral Russian aggression that triggered a wider Ukrainian crisis. The Russian narrative remains that it was a justified reaction to the illegal overthrow of Ukraine's president by pro-Western mobs in Kiev, and the perceived threat that a new Ukrainian government could nationalize its historic naval base in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Putin could have made his case a lot better, and grabbed a land bridge at the same time. Crimea was Russian since Cathy the Great, before that, it was Muslim, before that, who cares? A lot longer than we have “owned” North America.
His PR really sucked at explaining that Russian Crimea was handed over to Ukraine under the Soviets as an internal USSR political deal, upon the ascension of Khruschev.
How many Americans know that? On in a thousand?
Terrible PR.
A telephone poll conducted by a German firm among Crimeans in January found that over 80 percent of respondents were happy to be newly-minted Russians.
I'm sure the usual suspects will be around shortly to tell us that Crimeans answered the pollster's questions with Russian rifles pointed at them.
FWIW, I visited Sevastopol in August of '13, before Crimea was repatriated and those people are about as pro-Russian as they come.
Thanks for this. Not too many people around here acknowledge that there is more than one side to the unhappy state of relations with Russia, and even fewer care. The Ukraine has in one form or another been united to Russia for a thousand years. Russia regards Ukraine’s relationship with Moscow to be a matter of vital national interest, and understandably so. The Ukraine is the reason Russia survived the invasions by Napoleon and more recently, Hitler. The Russians resent Western meddling there in the same way we would if Russia started meddling in Mexico or Canada.
We need to stop acting like we are the only country in the world that has vital interests.
Compare that to the wonderful Kiev Koup Kiddies who made sure one of the very first things they did when they took over last February was to pass laws in line with the US and EU view that Muzzies are all nonviolent, Izlame isn't the problem, and queers along with perverts are wonderful people who should be protected welcomed into every facet of life.
See how Russia targets the most important segments of society and oppresses them?
/ sarc on that last line for those who don't recognize it
Interesting article, explaining what all informed observers know but which many wish wasn't true. The German pollsters found that 80% of Crimeans want to be Russian after all. What motives might Kiev, Brussels and Washington have in opposing the self-determination of such an overwhelming majority?
Using the logic of you Putin butt-people, we should just give everything back to the Indians.
Those who make excuses for tyrants and bloody murderous regimes are morally weak and a danger to our own country.
"GfK Ukraine's poll wasn't based on actual field work, which is understandable, since a Ukraine-based organization would have a tough time operating in today's Crimea, which is rife with Russian FSB secret police agents and ruled by a local government intent on keeping dissent to a minimum. Instead, it conducted a telephone poll of 800 people in Crimea."
A Telephone poll conducted under the brutal authoritarianism of a former KGB thug is automatically believed by every giddy and orgasmic lover of Putin here.
How is this allowed on FreeRepublic? Pimps for Putin? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
That’s Christian Science Monitor, not RT. And there was more than one poll.
Let’s see. I know a former Crimean family in Kiev who can’t return to his former home nor sell it. I wonder how many Crimea people like him were included in this survey? Oh, none I’m sure.
They voted Yanukovich into office.
It only took 8 posts!
Is Putin in Greece and maybe Italy, making some deals behind the scenes?
Polls can be manipulated - here and everywhere else.
The hypocrisy stinks real bad...
Russians were quick to reverse Khruschev’s decision to award the territory to Ukraine.
Which came as no surprise in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union.
Putin had the pulse of Crimean opinion surveyed before he took the risky move to intervene.
It was the only Ukrainian territory with a 72% Russian speaking majority and the only one in which Russians at 60% where in a demographic majority.
This one of those things where Western outrage is not going to reverse the outcome.
More likely he is just down with a nasty case of the grippe. Supposedly there is some wicked bug going around that has people dropping like flies in Moscow.
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