Published on Mar 27, 2014
On March 17, Russia officially annexed Crimea, a region of its neighbor Ukraine. This followed a three week Russian military occupation and an illegitimate rubber stamp referendum by Crimea's Russian-speaking population. The annexation has shocked European and U.S. governments and constitutes a territorial aggression not seen in Europe since World War II. The Russian government refers to Crimea's historical ties to Russia, yet Crimea is a region with a complex and often tragic history -- including the mass deportation of the native Crimean Tartars by Joseph Stalin in 1944, a brutal act of ethnic cleansing that enabled him to resettle the region with ethnic Russians. Crimea's strategic value is indisputable. While it has been officially part of Ukraine since 1954, it contains the home port of Russia's warm water navy, an arrangement continued even after Ukraine gained its independence following the fall of the Soviet Union.
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