Fact check: The Russians 'invaded' Crimea in 2014.
Or did they come and rescue Crimea from a racist Ukrainian revolution?
MOST CRIMEANS WANTED TO BE PART OF RUSSIA
At the end of the day, most Crimeans wanted to be part of the Russian Federation rather than Ukraine.
Even when Crimea was part of Ukraine, Crimea was an independent province of Ukraine, which means that they were already somewhat alienated from the mainstream political process. Most Crimeans were Russian speakers.
LANGUAGE POLICY IN UKRAINE
Victor Yanukovych’s government was democratically elected in the election of January 17 2010.
On the 3 July 2012, amidst fistfights in the Ukrainian Parliament, a law was passed called "On the principles of the State language policy" that gave the status of regional language to Russian and other minority languages. It allowed the use of Russian, Hungarian, Moldovan and Romanian in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine wherever the minorities exceeded 10% of the population.
This policy, which aimed to make life easier for minorities in the Ukraine, was vigorously protested by Ukrainians in Kyiv.
RIOTS OVER BURGEONING NATIONAL DEBT
In 2013, the Ukrainian government was going the way of Greece, defaulting on their debts, and the value of Ukrainian bonds was plummeting. President Victor Yanukovych began trade talks with Europe, but after Yanukovych halted these talks. protests broke out in the Ukrainian streets, over the cost of living and the burgeoning national debt, accusing Yanukovych’s government of mismanagement. The International Monetary Fund was demanding cuts in energy subsidies to households as a condition for further loans and this fueled the protests even more.
Yanukovych instituted martial law and at least 77 protesters were killed in Kyiv when police opened fire on them.
2014 - UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT OVERTHROWN, NEW LANGUAGE LAW OUTLAWS RUSSIAN
On 21 February 2014 President Victor Yanukovych fled the riots in Ukraine and sought political asylum in Russia.
The day after that, 22 February, was the Maidan Revolution, when the democratically elected government of Ukraine was overthrown by the opposition.
And on the 23 February 2014, the new government repealed the 2012 language law and made Ukrainian the only official language, effectively disenfranchising Russian speakers from the political, legal and administrative arenas.
CRIMEANS HOLD PRO-RUSSIAN PROTESTS
On the very same day, pro-Russian protests were being held in the province of Crimea, in the main city of Sevastopol.
Then on the 26 February, a debate was held in the Crimean Parliament about loosening ties with Kyiv. Apparently the atmosphere was highly volatile. Two opposition members who were in fact present, refused to register as present, and the vote was unable to be held because there was no quorum.
The day after that, on the 27 February 2014, masked men broke into the Crimean parliament and took over and installed Sergei Aksyonov, a Russian Separatist, whose political party had only won 4% of the vote in the 2010 elections, as the regional prime minister of Crimea. A Russian flag was planted outside the parliament. The masked men were reportedly Russian special forces in disguise, although I can’t verify that.
President Aksyonov declared a referendum to be held on 16 March 2014, to give Crimeans a choice between returning to the 1992 constitution, where Crimea had its own president and was an autonomous region under Ukrainian rule, or becoming part of Russia.
“We will vote on a resolution on joining the Russian Federation and they must decide before the referendum if they will accept us so people don’t look stupid voting for Russia.”
The decision was announced outside parliament to a roaring a crowd, chanting “Rossiya! Rossiya!” and waving the Russian tricolour. Parliament said 78 deputies had backed it. reuters
CRIMEA, WHERE 97% OF PEOPLE SPEAK RUSSIAN
It is worth questioning the allegations that the referendum was rigged.
In the province of Crimea, 54% of the population is Russian, 24% are Ukrainian, and 12% are Crimean Tatars. In Sevastopol, however, the largest city, 70% are Russian, 22% Ukrainian, and there are very few Tatars. An absolute majority of the Crimean population (97%) use Russian as their main language.
In 2014 when the 2012 language law was repealed, protests began immediately in Crimea; the Crimeans wanted to return to the constitution of 1992, when Crimea was briefly an autonomous region of the Ukraine with its own president.
Numerous polls and surveys conducted since one in 1991 where 94.3% of Crimeans wanted to leave Ukraine have shown that most Crimeans wanted to be a part of Russia, in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2008, 2009-2011, 2013, and several in 2014.
In March 2014 a survey by Germany’s largest pollster, GfK, reported that 54.8% of Crimeans consider themselves Russian, and that 70.6% of Crimeans had already decided to vote for accession to Russia in the upcoming referendum.
11 March 2014 (5 days before the referendum) - The Crimean Republican Institute of Political and Sociological Research survey reported that 77% of Crimeans planned to vote for reunification with Russia and only 8% planned to vote to stay part of the Ukraine. 97% of respondents viewed the current situation in Kyiv as negative.
The allegation that the Ukrainians subscribe to Nazi ideology is not recent. This was the billboard advertising the 2014 referendum; on the right are the colours of the Russian flag:
The Crimeans voted in the referendum. The result was that a majority wanted to become part of Russia.
The parliament asked Russia to come and annex the Crimea, and Putin’s armies moved in on the 18th March.
Crimeans were overwhelmingly happy with the outcome. After the poll and the annexation, in May 2014 a Pew Research survey reported:
“Crimean residents are almost universally positive toward Russia. At least nine-in-ten have confidence in Putin (93%) and say Russia is playing a positive role in Crimea (92%). Confidence in Obama is almost negligible at 4%, and just 2% think the U.S. is having a good influence on the way things are going on the Crimean peninsula. Overwhelming majorities say the March 16th referendum was free and fair (91%) and that the government in Kyiv ought to recognize the results of the vote (88%).” Pew Research
A COMPLEX SITUATION?
In 2014 US Policy towards Russia had been hostile for many years, according to former US Ambassador to Russia Jack Matlock.In Crimea, a province where a very large majority speak Russian and were being completely disenfranchised from the political process by the Ukrainian government, I don’t think we can blame a majority of Crimeans for wanting to become a part of Russia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
LANGUAGE POLICY IN THE UKRAINE
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/04/ukrainians-protest-russian-language-law
https://www.rt.com/news/crimea-facts-protests-politics-945/
DID CRIMEA WANT TO BE PART OF RUSSIA?
https://www.quora.com/Does-Crimea-want-to-become-part-of-Russia
https://avaazpress.s3.amazonaws.com/558_Crimea.Referendum.Poll.GfK.pdf
https://ria.ru/20140311/999032876.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-russia-aksyonov-idINL6N0M93AH20140313
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/05/08/despite-concerns-about-governance-ukrainians-want-to-remain-one-country/ - this article deals with the Crimean question as well. Check it. Despite the title the quote is genuine.
https://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/20/fmr_us_ambassador_behind_crimea_crisis
further reading: https://usrussiaaccord.org/acura-viewpoint-jack-f-matlock-jr-todays-crisis-over-ukraine/
CHANGE LOG
9 June 3:49am- firmed up my conclusions and added Jack Matlock links as well as the note about the quote is genuine next to Pew Research Link.