Hmm. How you will slice Russia? Even USA cannot do that, because of (real) fear of MAD. It's better to not spread something like that. Empire will fall on it own, just wait.
Yeah, right, vote under gunpoint of Russian soldiers, organized by Russian side, counted by Russian side, all completed in just two weeks during which the whole peninsula was filled with propaganda claiming Ukraine was taken over by nazi junta so the Choice is either nazi or Russia.
I would like to believe the person you are responding to is very naive, but looking at the account, the comments it makes (most of the comments in the last 2 weeks) and the karma comments receive..
It's either a member of fifth column [0] (could be unwillingly - by accident) or a troll/bot [1]
Just because someone does not have the mainstream western view does not make them a troll. Suggesting so is intellectually lazy. People are still allowed to think for themselves.
Yes, the Crimean vote was a scam. The way that Crimea was forcefully annexed is certainly not ideal and out of line with modern norms. But that doesn't mean that Crimeans didn't want to rejoin Russia. Both can be true.
> Yes, the Crimean vote was a scam. The way that Crimea was forcefully annexed is certainly not ideal and out of line with modern norms. But that doesn't mean that Crimeans didn't want to rejoin Russia.
this line of thinking is not irrational but still very harmful to civilization as a whole. a belief that some chunk of population wants to secede can never be used as grounds for annexation, it should only be used to influence internal political affairs. calling annexation on such grounds "not ideal" is understating it to the point where i can rationally conclude your goal is to just see the civilization burn to the ground.
which coincidentally is exactly the kind of views that russian government trolls promote in all corners of the internet.
yes, "Both can be true", but you don't know if the latter is true without holding a proper referendum with both sides of the question represented fairly and debated widely so that citizens are well informed/educated when going to vote. and that means you should condemn in strongest terms what russia has done (or any other country involved in similar conflict), not just meekly call it "not ideal".
> A joint survey by American government agency Broadcasting Board of Governors and polling firm Gallup was taken during April 2014.[284] It polled 500 residents of Crimea. The survey found that 82.8% of those polled believed that the results of the Crimean status referendum reflected the views of most residents of Crimea, whereas 6.7% said that it did not. 73.9% of those polled said that they thought that the annexation would have a positive impact on their lives, whereas 5.5% said that it would not.
