Black Sea Quotes
It was true that the majority of the citizens of Crimea in 2014 preferred to be a part of Russia than the Ukraine. So the Russians sized the Crimea, had an election and when the vast majority of the Crimeans voted for Russian affiliation, they annexed the Crimea under the principle of self-determination. However, Russia has two of its states with Muslim majorities that prefer to affiliate with one of the majority Muslim nations in the area. But the hypocrisy of the Russians became clear when they would not allow those two states to have elections. The Russian policy seemed to be that whatever is part of Russia is non-negotiable and not subject to self-determination, but whatever borders on Russia that is not part of Russia is entitled to an expression of self-determination and independence of other affiliation if they want. The Crimea had the only warm water port in the Soviet Union; they had a deal with the Ukrainians that their navy could use the port. However, they felt that Western support for the new Ukrainian government was the first step in ousting Russia from that port.
This was his major justification for occupying and annexing the Crimea. He had a good historical point. The Crimea had been a part of Russia for centuries, and many Russians had died defending it over the years. At the high pont of the strength of the Soviet Union, the Soviet leadership reorganzied the "states" of the nation and placed the Crimea in the State of Ukraine -- which they also considered part of Russia and from where the great Russian hero, Alexander Nevsky came and unified Russia. When the Soviet Union broke up, Ukraine became an independent coutry and assumed Crimea belonged to it, based in the last administrative reorganization of the area before the break-up. However, most of the commerce in Crimea was with Russia proper and not Ukraine. And the Crimeans were mostly ethnic Russians or Taters--a minority who had no historical or cultural ties to Ukraine. Neither group spoke Ukrainian much. 90 percent of the Crimeans wanted to Remain with Russia and not be part of Ukraine. This was the main reason that the Russians were so easily able to send armed soldiers in civillian dress into Crimea to size the territory--the vast majority of the indigineous Crimean poluation wanted them there and strongly favored annexation claiming that they had the right as American President Woodrow Wilson put it to "self determination". Bit Ukraine would hot allow a formal plebicite. So Russia sized Crimea, had the plebicite, and based on the results and the desires of Putin and the Russian leadership, annexed Crimea.
