Sad 1 Year

From the BBC:
"Life in Crimea: One year on from Russia's takeover"

A year ago, reporting from Simferopol about the takeover of Crimea by Russia was a tense and difficult business.  At any moment, as the gangs of activists who had flooded across the border swaggered through the city streets, violence seemed on the point of breaking out. Today, Simferopol is completely peaceful.   There are no soldiers on the streets, and no one stops us as we set up our television camera in the main square, overlooked by its statue of Lenin, or asks us for accreditation.

The reason is simple: the transfer of Crimea from Ukraine to Russia has become an accepted fact.  When a few pro-Ukrainian supporters gathered the other day at the statue of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in Simferopol to mark the anniversary of his birth, they were quickly moved on.   Three demonstrators were arrested - apparently for wearing Ukrainian colours - tried, and sentenced to a few hours' community service.  "I was fired from work today because it was considered it wasn't appropriate for my job," said one of them, Leonid Kuzmin, a young pro-Ukrainian teacher. "We will obey the law, but we are going to fight it in the courts." "Crimea will never return to Ukraine," says the region's prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov. "The decision has been made once and for all."  Mr Aksyonov, a burly, jovial figure who is often alleged to have been involved in gangland activity in the past, admits that he was not told beforehand of the plans by Russia's President Vladimir Putin to take back Crimea early last year.   According to an opinion poll in February conducted by pollster GfK, 93% of the people asked said that they were happy that Crimea was under Russian control.   Such an overwhelming figure might look distinctly Soviet, or even North Korean; but the polling organisation which conducted it was Ukrainian, not Russian. And even though plenty of people no doubt thought it would be better to give the safe answer, the general sense of peace and quiet on the streets seems to indicate that they accept what has happened.

PM Aksyonov insists the annexation of Crimea was democratic and "not an act of aggression"  "Neither the Crimean Tatars nor the Ukrainians have any reason to worry," he said.   But that does not ease the anxieties of either group.   The Tatars used to have their own parliament here, but last September it was abolished, and the building closed down.   In the street outside it, I talked to a former Tatar MP, Zair Smerdlyav.   "Today," he said, "various actions are being taken against the Tatar people: kidnappings, killings, arrests and fines." At the local Tatar television station, ATR, the staff feel that they are in constant danger of being closed down, though they continue to report what they regard as violations of human rights. In one school I visited for instance, the main medium of instruction has been changed from the Ukrainian language to Russian; but if parents want their children to continue learning in Ukrainian, the school accommodates them.   Thirty-one classes are now taught in Russian, and nine in Ukrainian. Some children are also taught in the Tatar language, if their parents choose. The outside world's response has made life a little harder for people here.   There are now some empty shelves in the otherwise full and attractive supermarkets.   You cannot use Western credit cards here or use an international phone.   And in the meantime, there will be no agreement on the basic question: was it a coup d'etat or a justifiable, democratic decision by the people here?

 

^ You have to accept all of this with a grain of salt. What people (even ethnic Russians) say in public and what they actually think has been apart of the Russian characteristic since the time of the Czars. There is always the fear of repression, imprisonment, etc and so you keep your head down and try not to rock the boat and hope they don't come after you. In the official Russian Government's "logic" the invasion and occupation of the Crimea was "democratic" despite the fact that Putin just openly admitted you was going to seize the Crimea with or without a vote and when the vote did come Russian troops were already on the ground. You can't have a free election with guns pointed at you. I have great respect for Russian culture, people, etc but sometimes the things that come out of the country make no sense to any semi-intelligent person and that has been the case for over a year now with the Crimea and eastern Ukraine. ^

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31869747