CRIMEAN BRIDGE. Russian President Vladimir Putin walks away from a construction truck after he drove the vehicle across the new 19 kilometres (12 miles) road-and-rail Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait that links mainland Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea during the opening ceremony on May 15, 2018. Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP
Sure would be shame if that bridge fell down - accidentally, of course.
For Russia, this is a historic moment. They don’t care what we think.
The question for NATO, thanks to that idiot, Barrack Obama , is:
” IS THIS A BRIDGE TOO FAR?”
The taking of Crimea says absolute zero about Russian aggression in the rest of Europe. Unlike the Baltic states, Belarus, Poland, etc., Crimea was ALWAYS part of Russia since before there was ever anywhere known as Ukraine or The Ukraine. Crimea had previously belonged to the Muslim Turks. Crimea is over 90% Russia, and those Russians’ ancestors trace back to Crimea for centuries. They speak Russian.
Crimea only became associated with the Ukraine as a result of an internal administrative move aimed at increasing the Russian population of the Ukraine SSR, while seeming to empower Ukraine. If followed the rest of Ukraine in going independent from Russia on the precondition that it would remain autonomous within Ukraine, have Russian as its official language, etc. Those promises were revoked.
While Kiev was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire/Confederation, Crimea was Russian.