General: Russia and Crimea

Ever since I started my blog I've had a lot of readers from Russia. Overall Russia is in third place, after the United States and the United Kingdom, but some months the majority of my readers are from Russia. It's you, my faithful Russian readers, that I'm addressing.

In 2014 the Russian army invaded Crimea and had it under its total control within a few weeks. A fake referendum was held for the people to decide whether they wanted to become part of Russia. The official result was that 96% of Crimean citizens wanted to become Russian, but international organisations weren't allowed to monitor the vote. Independent polls estimate that less than 3% of the Crimean population wanted to become Russian.

Since then there is a massive military presence in Crimea. In the larger cities Russian soldiers are posted on every street to "keep the peace". Anyone who says that Crimea belongs to Ukraine in public receives a six month prison sentence. Companies belonging to Ukrainian nationals were taken away from them without compensation. Crimeans are encouraged to leave, and many of the more outspoken critics have "disappeared". All Ukrainians in Crimea have been offered Russian citizenship, but so far less than 10% have accepted the offer. Nevertheless, teenage Ukrainians living in Crimea are forced to do Russian military service, in violation of international laws.

Worst of all, Russia is attempting to make Crimea Russian by relocating Russian citizens into Crimea. In the last five years 600,000 Russians have moved to Crimea, most of them retired army officers and their families. The goal is clear: the 2014 referendum had to be faked, so Vladimir Putin wants to put enough loyal Russians into Crimea to be able to win a second genuine referendum.

Crimea is Ukraine, and it will remain Ukraine even after the last Ukrainian in Crimea has been murdered. Russia should pull its army out of Crimea immediately.