Russia Stole Crimea
Never mind that post-Euromaidan, in March of 2014, 97% of Crimean citizens voted to join the Russian Federation, turnout 83 and 89% turnout in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the local government of Sevastapol respectively.
‘By indulging Ukraine's claims to Crimea, West is encouraging country's ‘neo-Nazi’ government policy, thunders Russian FM Lavrov’, 12 Aug, 2021, RT.com
“Speaking to a group of young people involved with an art collective based on the disputed peninsula on Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the West's support was pushing Zelensky to be more and more extreme in pursuit of his policy goals. The 'Crimean Platform' forum, he said, “will continue to nurture the neo-Nazi and racist mentality of the current Ukrainian government.” [...]
“In April, Lavrov's official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, argued that Ukraine was recklessly indulging far-right sentiments to prop up its government and strengthen anti-Russian feeling. Speaking after demonstrators at a march in Kiev raised banners and carried flowers to commemorate the SS Galicia division, raised from Ukrainian levies to fight alongside Nazi Germany, Zakharova said government policy was an “insult” to those who had died in World War II.”
‘Ukraine CAN retake Crimea if West supports claims, Kiev insists, as Zelensky blasts ‘reluctant’ foreign leaders ‘afraid’ of Russia’, 23 Aug, 2021, RT.com
“Speaking on Monday at the opening of the ‘Crimean Platform’ conference, designed to bring dignitaries together to discuss the future of the region, Zelensky announced that “the countdown to the liberation of the peninsula” has already begun. According to him, “August 23, 2021 will likely go down in history as the start of the de-occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.”
The president acknowledged that “our independent country, Ukraine, will never be able to return Crimea alone,” adding that pressure from abroad was required to “force Russia to sit down at the negotiating table.” [...]
“However, at the same time, Zelensky has expressed frustration at the decision of some of the most significant Western leaders not to attend the ‘Crimean Platform.’ While the Baltic nations, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova, announced they would be represented at presidential level, most other European states elected to send a foreign minister instead.
In the case of both Germany and the US, delegates were taken from even lower down the diplomatic pecking order. Berlin and Washington will both be represented by their energy ministers.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has previously criticized the conference, saying that by supporting Kiev’s focus on regaining Crimea, the West “will continue to nurture the neo-Nazi and racist mentality of the current Ukrainian government.”
Grateful to @CharlesMichel for participation in #CrimeaPlatform & support of the #EU & its members for the declaration. Agreed on further coordination within the initiative on deoccupation of Crimea. Discussed preparations for the 23rd Summit to be held on October 12. pic.twitter.com/dUn4AGM9UN
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 23, 2021
‘Crimea Platform summit participants recommit to work towards ending Russia’s occupation’, Aug. 23, 2021, kyivpost.com
“Thus, Zelensky said, Russia has to comply with international law — immediately allow in Crimea the watchdogs of human rights protection, the representatives of the United Nations and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.” [...]
Zelensky called on Russia to join the platform to find ways to end its occupation of Crimea and “fix the mistake that Russia made.”
“We begin the countdown to freeing Crimea,” he added.”
(cross-posted from Café Babylon)
Comments
Whatever the people vote for.
If the people in the Crimea voted to be independent,
I think a people's will is what makes a country's government legitimate.
For that reason, numerous "deals" between the powerful lack legitimacy.
In the beginning of WWII Hitler and Stalin signed a deal dividing up Eastern Europe and pledging not to attack one another. We all know how badly that worked out. (or should) It didnt take Hitler long to break it, he invaded the former USSR - Several years later the Big Three met at Yalta and infamously divided up the postwar world into spheres of influence on a cocktail napkin.
International law unfortunately has allowed these deals to be made but has not made them public, this means nobody is safe, everything is a bargaining chip.
As long as these kinds of monster madmen are allowed to take power.
yes, their votes should be sacrosanct.
but, but: Revanchist Russia! Nato claims that bith Georgia and Ukraine are 'under NATO's umbrella, and will be members soonish, if they can reform themselves!
a lengthy but fun source from june 2021, 2 outtakes:
thanks for the cliff notes from the video, as videos have proven disastrous to my well-being. sorry to have been so long, but with visitors, phone calls and RL chores, it happens more often than i'd like.
Polls about Crimea
The response to that 2014 Crimea poll is always "It was done at the point of Russians rifles." or something like that.
To which I respond, so what about the 1991 Crimean referendum?
That's 94% of people in Crimea wanted independence from Ukraine.
But wait, that's not all. Because Crimea didn't get independence from Ukraine, the issue didn't go away. They took a vote in 1994 as well.
So the opinion of people in Crimea is extremely clear. As is the position of people in Ukraine and people in Russia.
Those are excellent details to have.
Crimea, an ethnic Russian state and the permanent home of the Russian Navy for 250 years, hated being attached to Ukraine. This happened in part to expedite services and utilities to the region after the Russian infrastructure was destroyed following WWII.
Self determination is the foundational Human Right, and it applies to a society, as well.
Of course, under that theory, the South would have been permitted to secede from the Union. If only they had won! What a better world this would be.
Europe would have forced them out of slavery. They were already sanctioned into submission and couldn't trade. Then, the United States would not have existed and grown into a fat insane bully. Most importantly, people could have exercised self-determination and lived without clashing ideologies and twisted religions and generations of severe mental illness from the compromises, corruption, and angst. A Left Wing could have formed in North America. People might have had fair labor laws and — for the first time ever — basic Human Rights.
Perhaps it is not too late....
In an alternate timeline, Lincoln is revered for his foresight
and skill at “11-dimensional chess,” having negotiated a peaceful secession that avoided civil war — outsmarting the Confederates, whom world opinion soon forced to abandon slavery a bit later anyway…
thank you for those extra votes,
both new to me, iirc.
Some human interest stories about Crimea
to counter Five-Eyes' MSM reporting of negative relationship between Tatars and Russians.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UpJGFIEf_E]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd7E7soBOH4]
"Russia" (Stalin) expelled a about 230, 000 Tatars
from Crimea in 1944, and allowed them to return in the 1980s. A brief look at Tatar history, as opposed to any particular nation's history, such as Russia or Turkey is informative.
Take a look at what Ukraine was up top in WWII and if they let any of those people they persecuted return, oh, that's right, they exterminated them.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The Tatars have their own sordid history
The Crimean Tatars and the Turkic Nogai people were responsible for one of the largest slave trades in history starting about 1450. It is estimated they took about one million Slavic Christians as slaves until Catherine the Great put an end to the practice by annexing Crimea in 1783.
The slaves that the Tatars shipped to the Ottoman Turk slave markets were never allowed to return.
Indeed, very much so. They were also always
very much more aligned with the Turks who were on and off Russia's forever enemy than with the Russians, "Crimeans" or anybody else. They are Turkic speaking peoples who had plenty of run-ins with an assortment of other people and, iirc, at one point wanted to create their own nation. I have just enough background wrt that whole area and its history to get myself in trouble. I am beyond the "Nevsky held off the Germans while the Muscovites dealt with the Mongols, then there were Tsars, wars with Turkey and European wars, followed by the commies and then whatever they have now" stage, but not too much deeper and wider, I got lost in all the Kahns, Kahnates and
cognatesKaganates, Varangian trade routes and all that.be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
IKR (= “I know, right?”) — I see “Khanate of the Golden Horde”
on maps of that era and this feeling comes over me like, “Is that where Game of Thrones spilled over into the real world and sorta became part of it?” (shudder)
Yeah, and mebbe in Iceland they keep dragons in underground caves and the volcanoes are just the cover story when outsiders notice the flames and smoke — no, no, that’s ridiculous — or is it? (scare chord)
The Tarters must have mingled with the Uyghurs, then.
Not the Chinese Uyghurs, but the head-chopping Uyghurs who transformed into ISIS and slaughtered the Syrian people for the United States.
(They now pose as exiled Chinese Uyghurs on Zoom. It's a living.)
superb unwinding of the 'human
rights violations', amigo. at least the short one. cliffs notes for the 25 minute one?
Plebescites are only respected by the US, NATO and
other imperialists when they achieve a result desired by said imperialists on other grounds and for other purposes.
If one wishes to really look into Crimea and the Ukraine, one has to start at least as early as the Kievan Rus. In the end one finds Ukraine is greatly a German outpost whilst Crimea largely retained its Rus culture and ties. True, the history of the region was not always peaceful and loving, but if you are looking at the structural reality on the ground, Crimea is far more Rus than German and Ukraine is far more German than Rus.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Bingo!
of course they're russian at heart, both by language and culture. the donbass are, to, i believe. the grisliest 40 deaths in the trade unions buildings in odessa, in 2014, smoke fire, and the crimean elderly babushkas screaming and running away!
so many of you here know and can narrate history and geopolitcs at once; thank you. as my neuro-cognitive synapses mis-fire more each day, what i'm left with it...images.
also:
if india ever held the long-promised plebicite on kashmir, we can guess how that one would be accepted, eh?
Yes, Donbass also, for sure.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
thanks for thee corroboration.
i'll try to have a good one, #YouToo. i'd been too frazzled to check.
eva bartlett commits journalism in the donbass, ukraine, 10/12/2019, C99%
turns out i'd also embedded this gut-wrenching video:
Crimea is part of the Russia soul
Just after Crimea returned to her Russia I was in Moscow. Waitresses and waiters had on tee shirts with the words "our Crimea". The return is enormously popular and fully supported in Russia, as it is in Crimea. Zelenski is asking that the people of Crimea, Russians, be forced to live under a Ukrainian government which hates them and their language. They want the land, but not the people. You know where that is going to go! The thought of this should be unconscionable to all feeling people, but apparently is not a problem for the political class in the US. The US and Ukraine were the only two nations to vote against an anti Nazi resolution in the UN. So who are we?
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
good-o, but i'd ask instead:
'who are the political class in the US?' at least those of us who fight the Empire and for a multi-polar planet are not they, no?
they also fight against being ruled by neo-nazis.
thank you, Wiz.