Andrew WIlson of the European Council on Foreign Relations busts a few myths about the Russian invasion of Crimea.
Andrew Wilson is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations
1. The new Crimean authorities were established at gunpoint. Despite Russian rhetoric about a “coup” in Kyiv, the real coup was in Crimea. The Crimean Assembly building was taken over at gunpoint after a seemingly successful rally supporting the authorities in Kiev. Berkut militia, fleeing from their crimes in Kiev, were allegedly involved.
2. This is totally unlike the Russian war in Georgia in 2008. Then, by most accounts, the Georgians were provoked into firing first. Only one Russian citizen has died in the current crisis, and he was shot by snipers in Kyiv.
3. The proposed referendum is against the Ukrainian constitution. Only a national vote can change the country’s borders.
4. The new Crimean “Prime Minister” Sergey Aksionov was a local gangster in the 1990s. His nickname was “goblin”. His Russia Party won only 4 percent at the last elections in Crimea
5. There are 266,000 Crimean Tatars in Crimea. Before the coup they were chanting “Allah is Great! Glory to Ukraine!” Now they are reportedly forming “self-defence”units. They were all deported by Stalin to Central Asia in 1944; half died as a result. They were only allowed to return after 1989 and still live in marginal conditions. The 70th anniversary of the Deportation is this May.
6. The Crimean Tatars are Sunni Muslim. The Crimean Tatar Khanate was the dominant power in the region from 1441 until Crimea was occupied by the Russian Empire in 1783. The campaign to turn it into a Russian Athos, a centre of Orthodox Christianity, only gathered pace after the Crimean War.
7. There is an ethnic Russian majority in Crimea (58 percent), but most settled there after World War II. Some 24 percent are Ukrainian. Crimean Tatars are over 13 percent, but nearer 20 percent of the school population.
8. Crimea is a peninsula. It gets all its water and gas from the rest of Ukraine.
9. There are big deposits of oil and gas off the Crimean coast.
10. Russia is re-supplying its Black Sea Fleet for a role in the Eastern Mediterranean, including linking up with the old Soviet naval base in Tartus, Syria.
This piece first appeared on the European Council of Foreign Relations blog
10 Responses to “Ten things you should know about Crimea”
George Hallam
Form this It appears that the Russians are really not very nice.
However, it’s worth looking at the people they are up against:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/03/the-dark-side-of-the-ukraine-revolt/
It is the logic of our times,
No subject for immortal verse,
That we who lived by honest dreams,
Defend the bad against the worst.
C. Day Lewis
rotorblade100
You totally miss the point (am not sure if you are classed as an academic, which would explain) but you are correct in the use of the word “coup” be it in Kiev or the Crimea – in this case Kiev. It makes no difference if the president was corrupt, he was nonetheless the democratically elected leader but was deposed by a mob. That may have been a mob of 300,000, and they made themselves heard and brought down the government. But Ukraine is a population of 43m – does this one mob really believe they represent the majority, and if so on what mandate. More importantly how can the EU and the USA jump onboard with a group of 300k protestors and take the moral high ground, simply because they say they want to be a part of Europe (and take advantage of the vast subsidies available – OK why not?).
For sure the corruption is unacceptable in Ukraine past, but is it expected to change with Ukraine future, considering the quantum shift has been by force and by a minority?
Democracy is not perfect, it does not exist, but its the best we have – the alternates are behind us in a civilised social world, we go to war to protect the democratic ideals we have, including their faults.
Russia has done no more than protect its predictable interests. EU and the USA have been hypocritical in their rhetoric about Ukraine. When will they sanction China. Or take responsibilty for Cuba, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan? I am not against the actions in any of these territories to be honest, but then dont cry when your neighbour does the same.
we all live on the same street
SarahAB
WRT (3) – I am sure this is correct, but if one region strongly wishes to break from Ukraine (and I don’t know what % of those in Crimea would wish to do so) isn’t that something one ought to consider supporting?
Lamia
It makes no difference if the president was corrupt, he was nonetheless
the democratically elected leader but was deposed by a mob.
This lie doesn’t get any truer no matter how often it’s repeated. He was impeached by the Ukrainian parliament, including by former supporters who withdrew their support. It was perfectly constitutional – unlike his own behaviour which, no surprisingly, brought about the impeachment in the first place.
just because someone is democratically elected, it does not give them the right to break the law and stay in position.
You may as well claim it’s an outrage for a qualified doctor to be struck off for misconduct. After all, once he’s become a qualified doctor, obviously he should be allowed to do as he likes. Right?
Lamia
To add:
am not against the actions in any of these territories to be honest, but then dont cry when your neighbour does the same. we all live on the same street
Except evidently you don’t mind the people living at the house named Ukraine getting their door kicked in by the Russians next door – so long as it teaches the Americans living at the other end of the street a lesson.
Great. That still boils down to: you don’t mind the people living at the house named Ukraine getting their door kicked in by the Russians next door.
Would you consider it acceptable for you to have your house broken into, so long as it taught a lesson (heaven knows how) to someone else who had broken into yet someone else’s home?