Armed militias of ethnic Russians took to the streets of the Crimean capital of Simferopol today, seizing a number of government buildings and raising a Russian flag over parliament, calling for secession from the Ukraine and a potential return to the Russian federation.
Secessionist sentiment has been growing in the Crimea since protesters in Kiev imposed regime change on Ukraine, replacing the pro-Russian President Yanukovych with pro-Western figures.
What started as mostly peaceful rallies in Sevastopol, the Crimean port city that is the base of the Russian Navy, turned violent yesterday, when ethnic Tatars attacked the protesters, insisting they would “eliminate” all secessionist sentiment among the majority Russians of Crimea. Today the Russian struck back in force.
The Crimean Parliament, for its part, is moving toward giving in to the protesters’ demands, and has agreed to a referendum which would give Crimeans the option of voting for outright secession, autonomy, or some affiliation with Russia.
Russia, for its part, has promised to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Yet if the Crimeans themselves manage to secede and want closer ties with Russia, it is difficult to imagine them being turned away.
What fighters? This Kiev bandits and rebels seized power.
Now why weren't the Maidan "demonstrators" described in such a way? There were plenty of armed men among them, why then weren't they clalled gunmen? "armed militias of native russians" – what about the armed militias of native ucranians who openly express their nazist sympaties? Is this person writing for antiwar, or is it a copied article?
If you had actually bothered to read Antiwar.com before accepting employment as a Russian hasbara-analog, you'd know that in fact Antiwar.com's writers opposed US "color revolution" activities in Ukraine and described the overthrow of the Yanukovych regime as a coup.
Antiwar.com's writers do their best to discern the truth. They may not always succeed, but neither are they just going to regurgitate Putinesque talking points.
you are correct,sir.they would much rather regurgitate reuters or cnn or new York times talking points.and do not bother to tell me to read antiwar.com,first.i have been reading it from it's inception,daily.
Since Washington caused Serbia to be partitioned, how can it oppose that of Ukraine?
it seems that my reply to Mr TLK did not sit well with AW.”MODERATOR” way to go AW.
[no, it seems that the “MODERATOR,” who is also TLK, was out running errands instead of sitting at his computer waiting with bated breath for your response, and that you couldn’t be bothered to log in to WordPress or IntenseDebate so that your comments avoid our spam filtering. Your comment has been published now – TLK]