Er, no? This article too chooses to turn a blind eye to Russia occupying Crimea and supporting the separatists in Donbass well before last year, just because the West failed to react appropriately at that time. Which of course emboldened Putin to go all in and try to occupy all of Ukraine.
As someone born in Crimea I always failed to understand why it’s the West’s business.
I think everyone is very confused with what “fascist” means. Some say not having a gender-neural bathroom is “fascist”. But anyway, it seems you’re very set on not liking someone, so it’s better to leave you alone.
This is truly tragic, I feel for civilians. As an EU resident, I want the EU to take actionable steps and achieve peace. Alas, I don’t see it happening. Everything that’s been done only led to escalation.
P.S. destroying civilian power infrastructure was one of the first things US-led coalition did in the Gulf War. Yes, it’s horrible for civilians, but you can’t ignore the fact it has a military purpose. Disrupting the energy balancing will have direct consequences for Ukrainian armed forces as they use rail for shipping ammo, weapons and personnel.
Most countries are made in a way to not allow parts of their territory to secede, even if they "want to do it". Just look what happens in Spain with Catalonia, what would probably happen in Scotland, Texas or California. This is not fascist.
But, you are ignoring the fact that Crimea did not decide to secede but that Russian soldiers (without insignia) became little green men, they forced Ukrainian army to surrender their weapons and leave Crimea. After that Russia organized "a referendum" where Crimea voted to join.
How well these referendums work we can see in Kherson.
If Scotland votes to leave the UK it will. The UK isn’t like Spain. It doesn’t believe in itself. The US looks like it does so it would likely be willing to wage a war of occupation. The US is far more nationalist than the UK.
Even the Scottish and Catalonian referenda were different: The Scottish referendum happened with the toleration of the central government, whereas the Catalonian referendum was ruled unlawful and widely boycotted. This was precisely because the UK believed in itself. Spain had a different understanding of itself - equally strong - and didn't want to go to the polls for it.
It absolutely did. The 90% vote matched our subsequent polling taken a year later - almost exactly and the western pollsters certainly didn't use little green men.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/03/20/one-year-a...
Much like in Kosovo the presence of the superpower's troops simply allowed the vote to happen.
Ukraine makes no secret of the fact that it doesn't want a free and fair vote to be run (it's "unconstitutional" to have a vote, they argue North Korearly) and neither do we.
That, along with the public bitchslap Elon Musk got for suggesting a vote, highlights the dim view the west takes on allowing democracy in the south and east of Ukraine.
I’m not so desperate to pick a side here. It’s absolutely right that Crimean secession wouldn’t be possible without Russian military intervention. And yes, it’s illegal from Ukraine’s point of view. At the same time, it’s legal from Russian point of view. Who’s in the right?
Now, NATO member states have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to explain why it’s all right for Kosovo or Taiwan, but not for Crimea. You have to agree that Taiwanese de-facto independence wouldn’t be possible without the US involvement.
So my point is, there has to be consistency.
Note that "react appropriately" doesn't necessarily mean "military support", just things like sanctions and reducing energetic dependence on Russia would have already signaled that more incursions wouldn't be well received.
Also, there's the part about military occupations being considered generally bad. We might want to care about that.
It was considered a triumph in Kosovo.
Nobody was bothered about NATO troops using military force to make a secessionist referendum happen. Because we did it.
Nobody was bothered that the Serbian constitution prohibited an independence vote. Because we held the vote.
Nobody questioned the result - also 90% - same as Crimea. Because we wanted that vote.
Kosovo's notional independence was as sparsely recognized as Crimea's for decades, even among supposed allies. We didn't play that up as an indication of our friendlessness though - because we did it.
The most substantial difference - that Kosovo ended up a puppet state (Pristina being bisected by "Bill Clinton boulevard" ought to be a clue as to by whom) while Crimea was incorporated directly.
Realistically the conflicts mirror each other much more closely than most people believe. That includes the reason why the west and Russia care deeply about both conflicts and both referenda while neither gives a shit about, say, the Tigray war - because THESE two conflicts dictate Russian and American spheres of influence.
And its world’s business if some country unilaterally declares other’s country part as theirs.
Although I think the world reacted appropriately. Non-trivial sanctions were imposed, almost no other country recognised the change.
Of course, Crimea issue is just another example of conflict of “territorial integrity“ vs “right to self determination” principles. World needs more formal rules.
(В любом случае, как мне кажется, справедливый референдум включал бы вариант «независимая Крымская Автономная Республика».)
This is the key point that most people overlook. There’s a lack of consistency on every side of the argument. Like, I absolutely despise Russians who say that say “Crimea is Russia, but Kosovo is Serbia”.
The Russia military was "occupying Crimea" back when there were British redcoats occupying New York City. The Russian military has been there since that time. The only new development has been the US, UK, with some continental support, demanding the Russians leave in recent times and pouring financial and military supplies into the Ukraine to accomplish this.
Also if we want to go back to the 1700s, then Russia should hand Crimea over to Turkey, not the Ukraine, because Ottoman Turkey is who occupied Crimea before Russia.