Quote:
Originally Posted by hulkrogan
Allowing Crimea to vote to join Russia would be like letting Richmond, BC vote to join China. You can't just move a ton of people to an area and then say it's yours. If Crimea was voting for independence, it would be a different situation. This is a segment of population that was placed there by a hostile regime years ago. To allow this tactic to work to expand your territory is a dangerous precedent, and as mentioned earlier would basically allow Russia to redraw the borders in all of the former Soviet states.
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I hear your point, but Crimea situation is a bit different. It was Russian until 1954, when USSR leader, ethnic Ukrainian just simply handed it over to Ukraine. Some people still remember it being Russian. Following the fall of the USSR Crimea was pushing for independence, however had to stay in Ukraine. They used to have Crimean president, however in 1995 Ukraine scrapped Crimea constitution and removed the position of Crimea president. I realize that it could set a precedent for some sort of evil plan to populate the land with your ethnic and then let them vote to join you, however this is not the case with Crimea. It is historically Russian and it is only last 20 years that it is foreign land for Russians. The only reason it is in Ukraine in the first place is the bizzare decision by USSR leader without any sort of people vote, which is still enough to be legit, but doesn't make much sense from ethnical and cultural standpoints
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Crimea voting for independent would mean almost the same, as joining Russia, as they simply don't have resources to be truly independent and will become Russian puppet.