Not to Reason Why: A New Crimean “War”?
http://www.juancole.com/2014/02/reason-crimean-war.htmlNot to Reason Why: A New Crimean “War”?
By Juan Cole | Feb. 24, 2014
The Russian-speaking population of the Crimean Peninsula in the Ukraine is upset by the popular movement in the west of the country that has overthrown president Viktor Yanukovych and is said to be forming militias. On some government buildings, Ukrainian flags have been replaced by Russian ones. Sevastopol is an important Black Sea port of call for Russian naval vessels, and Moscow has a base there.
Of all the ways in which Russian President Vladimir Putin will see the revolution in the Ukraine as dangerous to Russian interests, the potential loss of Crimea as a Russian ‘near abroad’ is among the more serious. Crimea was given to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine by Nikita Krushchev (himself Ukrainian) in the 1950s, but more Russians think they have a claim on Crimea than think they have a claim on Chechnya.
US national security adviser Susan Rice has already warned Russia against sending troops into the Ukraine. But what about the sailors at the base in Crimea? They’re already there.
From about 1050 Crimea came under Turkic rule, later Mongol, and later Turkic again. From 1441 until the late 1700s it was a Muslim Khanate that became an Ottoman vassal state. In the late 1700s it was annexed by the Tsarist Russian Empire. By 1900 Crimean Tatars, previously the major population, had been reduced to half of residents. After the Soviet revolution they were reduced to a quarter. Then Stalin forcibly deported many of them to Central Asia. So Crimea was over the two centuries after its incorporation into the Russian Empire largely russified and its indigenous Muslim population swamped or displaced. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Tatars remained or have returned, but they are still a minority.
= new reply since forum marked as read
10.30am GMT
In response to a warning by US national security adviser Susan Rice yesterday that it would be a “grave mistake” for Russia to send troops into Ukraine, Russia has told her the advice may be better directed towards the White House, Russian news agency Interfax reports, citing a Russian foreign ministry source.
The source is quoted as saying:
We have seen the expert evaluations of Susan Rice, which are based on repeated US military interventions in multiple places around the world, especially where the US administration is of the opinion that the norms of Western democracy are in danger or ruling regimes begin too clearly ‘to get out hand’.
We consider that the current presidential adviser will give this kind of advice about the error of using force to the US leadership in the event of a decision about a new intervention.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/24/ukraine-protests-warrant-arrest-viktor-yanukovych-live-updates#block-530b192ce4b06aebce0d0233
I couldn't find the "people in glass houses" forum here. 
