We had the option of sending election observers to Crimea. The US decided they didn’t have the right to hold elections and so we didn’t send observers.
Yeah, because the referendum was so wonderful. The “Prime Minister,” by the way, was a member of a fringe party with only 3 members. He became PM by walking into the Crimean Rada followed by guys carrying machine guns and grenade launchers, and then having a “vote,” and miraculously getting ‘yea’ votes from members of the rada who were not even present. Then the vote itself, which took place under the watchful gaze of Russia’s SS, with people getting carried off and beaten, one or two people’s bodies being found tortured and executed out in the forest, was accomplished through child voting, pre-filled in ballots, and total control of the media.
Yeah that’s democracy Russia style!