A Jewel in Two Crowns [Soviet Sevastopol]

National Geographic ^ | April 2011 | Cathy Newman

[Bigg Red]

Okay, thanks FRiend.

[annalex]

It would be nice if international law were to be respected but it doesn’t always happen

No, but when it doesn't happen, -- like in setting a military ruse by removing the national insignia, -- the offending party is thereby proven to engage in an act of aggression. Peacekeepers do not hide their national identity, hostile subversives do.

That Russia has interests in Crimea, and in Ukraine, no one disputes. It doesn't mean Russia gets to inject its military there, let alone do so in disguise.

[annalex]

Let me illustrate the main thesis of the unrepentant sovietism of the Ukraine secessionists. These are recent secessionist rallies. Count the red flags in between the Russian tri-color national flags:

Naturally for a movement that seeks to reunite with the Russian Federation, we have a prevalence of white-blue-and-red flags, or similarly themed "Russian Unity" flags. Thes are the flag of the Imperial Russia and of the White Movement that the Russian Federation had expropriated and awkwardly and shamelessly goes by. But why is there so many old USSR flags? The USSR is what gave the Crimea to Ukraine as if these people were trainloads of lumber. It is not them for its unity symbolism that the red flags are brought to demonstrations in the Crimea but because -- well, you know. The bull and the red rag, remember? It is the visceral attraction to the Soviet System, a passion that even forgives the very transfer of Crimea that they should now lament, -- that is driving them. Russians they are not. They are Sovs. That is all they are.

Images selection courtesy Theodor Mamonov: Red Sevastopol.