MikeLigalig.com

4 March 2014

Ukraine crisis: Does Russia have a case?


Soldiers believed to be Russians outside the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in Crimean village of Perevalnoye

Russia says it is acting in Ukraine to protect the human rights of its citizens. But what justification does it have for sending troops into Crimea?

What is Russia's claim to Crimea?

Its historical links with the peninsula go back to Catherine the Great in the 18th Century, when Russia conquered southern Ukraine and Crimea, taking them from the Ottoman Empire. In 1954, Crimea was handed to Ukraine as a gift by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who was himself half-Ukrainian. Only 10 years earlier, Joseph Stalin had deported Crimea's entire Tatar population, some 300,000 people, allegedly for co-operating with Hitler's Germany.


Nikita Khrushchev (file pic) Nikita Khrushchev (R) transferred Crimea to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954

When Ukraine became independent in 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed that Crimea could remain in Ukraine, with Russia's Black Sea fleet remaining at Sevastopol under lease. That lease was in recent years extended to 2042.

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What about the role of 'radical extremists'?

Moscow has regularly complained that the protests in Kiev's Independence Square were hijacked by the far right, who have since gone on to take power in a new government that includes "undisguised Nazis". Two groups, Right Sector and Svoboda (Freedom), are frequently mentioned and there are regular references to wartime nationalist Stepan Bandera, seen as a hero to some but accused by others of being a Nazi collaborator linked to massacres of Jews and Poles.


File pic of protester holding portrait of Bandera. Nationalists see Stepan Bandera as a pro-independence hero but Russia and the West see him as a fascist

The far right was a minority element in the protests that attracted a wide cross-section of support from Kiev and other cities. They were, however, often involved in the most violent confrontations and nationalist symbols were frequently visible in the square.


Far right armed with bats patrol Kiev

The nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party has four posts in the government. Oleksandr Sych is deputy prime minister and Oleh Makhnitsky becomes acting chief prosecutor. It also runs the agriculture and ecology portfolios but its leader, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, is not in the government.


Svoboda protest in Kiev (27 Feb) Svoboda's leader is not part of the government but has four members in the government

The extremist Right Sector is not represented. Protest leader Andriy Parubiy has become chairman of the National Security Council. While not seen as far right, the ousted president has called him an extremist.

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Does Crimea create a precedent for other Ukrainian cities?

The circumstances in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv are comparable to the situation in Crimea. There have been pro-Russian protests in both predominantly Russian-speaking cities. In Donetsk, some 100 demonstrators stormed the regional administration building on Monday.


The entrance to the Donetsk regional government building was damaged by pro-Russian protesters The entrance to the Donetsk regional government building was damaged by pro-Russian protesters

Correspondents described how the protesters in Donetsk chanted, "Putin, come". Russian troops are said to be stationed over the border and President Vladimir Putin has spoken of sending the military on to "the territory of Ukraine" without specifying where.

Is there a 'humanitarian crisis'?

There have been unconfirmed reports in Russian media of 675,000 Ukrainians streaming across the border into Russia since the start of the year. But one Russian TV report on the "humanitarian catastrophe" illustrated its story with a Polish border crossing unrelated to the crisis.

http://www.bbc.com/

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