Potential Disaster in Crimea

Crimean officials said 80 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast ballots, which offered only two options: secede from Ukraine and join Russia or revert to the 1992 constitution which gave Crimea vast autonomy.

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Even before residents of Crimea headed to the polls Sunday, Ukrainians and Russians knew the result of the vote would be to secede and join Russia.

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The prospect of a beefed up Russian force moving north from Crimea into other parts of Ukraine or Ukrainian tanks engaging potential Russian invaders in the east raised tensions after weeks when the Russian takeover of Crimea was largely without bloodshed.

  McClatchy

Why are they calling this a “Russian takeover of Crimea?” It was a nearly unanimous vote by Crimean citizens (large numbers of whom are Russian) to be a part of Russia.

In a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Barack Obama reiterated that the referendum result “would never be recognized by the United States and the international community,” according to a White House statement.

And if we don’t recognize it, it’s not real, right? (They don’t say what Vlad said to Barry. Let’s imagine.)

Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Ilmirovich Temirgaliev said that the region would replace the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, with Russian rubles in April.

So much easier to pronounce. 

The banks will be busy for the next couple of weeks.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian soldiers still in Crimea had until Friday to leave the territory or face military action by Russian forces.

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Ukrainian soldiers said last week that their Russian counterparts had told them that after the referendum their presence would be considered illegal and that they would be given the choices of laying down their arms and returning to Ukraine, taking Russian citizenship or preparing to defend themselves.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh, in an interview with Ukrainian Interfax news service, said that Ukrainian troops would not be leaving Crimea.

He said that Ukrainian combat readiness remains at its highest level, and that in past few days 40,000 Ukrainians have signed up for National Guard duty.

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[E]xperts and military officials note that once Crimea is broken away from Ukraine, it will lose access to water and fuel, which flow to it from the Ukrainian mainland, and that the area will not have a land connection to Europe except through what is likely to be a hostile Ukraine.

Recipe for disaster.