4 Years: Crimea

4 years ago (March 16, 2014) today Crimea held an internationally unrecognized referendum on whether to join the Russian Federation or not. Since February 20, 2014, when Russia invaded and started occupying Crimea, the Russian Military had between 20,000-30,000 Russian soldiers and 15,000 defectors from the Ukrainian Military (mostly ethnic Russians) and had secured all strategic areas of Crimea in terms of both territory and administration – breaking International  treaties that even Putin himself had signed. With an already ethnic Russian-backed government in place (Fifth Columnists) and the Russian Military controlling things the Crimean people “voted” to leave the Ukraine and become part of Russia. Crimea was officially annexed to the Russian Federation on March 18, 2014.

In annexed Crimea, the ethnic Russian population are considered first-class citizens (with those from the Russian Federation - and not Crimea - above them. The ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Tartars in Crimea are openly and officially discriminated against. Any use of the Tartar or Ukrainian language whether on the radio, TV, in newspapers or books, on the street or in the home can result in arrest and deportation to the Russian Federation (just like in Soviet times.) The economy of annexed Crimea is worse now than 4 years ago due, in large part, to corruption from the government officials sent from Moscow to Crimea to “Russify” all areas of the territory. Tourism, which was once the mainstay of the Crimean economy from Czarist times to Soviet times to Ukrainian times, has plunged in annexed Crimea to near nothing. Ordinary Russians from the Russian Federation cannot afford to take vacations – within Russia, to Crimea or around the world - due to the international sanctions placed on Russia by the US, Canada, the EU, Australia, Japan, etc. and the near collapse of the Russian economy. The only exceptions are the Russian oligarchs, those Russians already outside of the Russian Federation in 2014, Russians sent abroad by the Russian Government and a handful of Russian students.

Four years ago ordinary Russians celebrated the invasion, occupation and annexation of Crimea as a Russian victory that restored Russia’s role in the International Community rather than the “banana republic” most saw it as from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to the Crimean Annexation of 2014 and now most see it as a huge mistake yet believe that if Russia “caves” into the West and gives Crimea back to the Ukraine then it will return the Russian Federation back to the lawless times of the 1990s (think the Wild Wild West of 1800s America.) Most Russians publically support Putin and his dictatorship because he is the “devil that they know.” Ordinary Russians (especially those that were adults during Soviet times and can “read between the lines” of official media – the only kind available in Russia today) know that Putin’s Russia is almost exactly like the Soviet Communist dictatorship and many do not privately agree with most of his actions – especially against the US, the UK, the EU or Crimea – and would like to see a Russian President actually do something to help improve the lives of ordinary Russians within the Russian Federation rather than make threats and acts of war and violence abroad. Those same people also know that anyone who speaks out against Putin is immediately silenced. That is why Putin will be re-elected President on March 18^th and will continue to rule with an iron-fist. Putin has to stay in power because all of his oligarch “friends” today would surely go after him the minute he lost his influence and stopped making them richer and it would most likely be in terms of a Stalin-like revenge. It’s sad to say but the true victims in all of this are the Crimeans (especially the ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Tartars there) and the ordinary Russians within the Russian Federation that can barely provide the basic standard of living for themselves while Putin and his oligarchs are billionaires and have carte blanche to threaten the rest of the world.