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In the Russian Federation, it is also known as the accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation (Russian: присоединение Крыма к Российской Федерации, romanized: prisoyedineniye Kryma k Rossiyskoy Federatsii), the return of Crimea (Russian: возвращение Крыма, romanized: vozvrashcheniye Kryma ...
Feb 20, 2024 · On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin made Crimea part of Russia. The annexation propelled his sagging approval ratings to an atmospheric 88 percent, and some Russians saw it as a first...
Mar 19, 2014 · The annexation of Crimea was the smoothest invasion of modern times. It was over before the outside world realised it had even started. And until Tuesday 18 March, when a group of pro-Russian...
- Overview
- HISTORY Vault: Stalin: Ruler of the Soviet Empire
The peninsula has long loomed large for Russian and Soviet leaders.
When Russia signed the Treaty of Paris in 1856, accepting defeat in the Crimean War—which had decimated its military and ruined its economy—it agreed to dismantle its naval base in the port city of Sevastopol. These were the terms demanded by Britain, France and their allies, who sought to eliminate Russia as a military threat in the Black Sea.
But the concession didn’t last long.
Russia began to rebuild Sevastopol during the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870. And throughout history, Russian leaders would return to Crimea again and again. After Germany’s bombing of Crimea during World War II, much of Sevastopol was in ruins. But Joseph Stalin declared the port a “hero city” and ordered it restored to its former neoclassical beauty.
Indeed, the Crimean peninsula has loomed large for Russian leaders ever since Russian Tsarina Catherine the Great annexed it from the Ottoman Empire in 1783. The strategically located peninsula, which is officially part of Ukraine, has given Russia military leverage not only in the Black Sea, but the greater Mediterranean region. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a 1997 treaty with Ukraine allowed Russia to keep its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, under a lease that has been extended until 2042.
But in 2014, Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in an illegal move that violated the territorial integrity of the former Soviet republic, and sparked a war that has displaced nearly 2 million people and destroyed the country’s infrastructure. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justified the aggression, in part, by asserting that Crimea is mostly comprised of ethnic Russians.
The Iron Curtain parts for a portrait of Joseph Stalin, the Russian dictator who ruled supreme over the Soviet Union from 1929-1953. Through methods of fear and intimidation, as well as death, millions of his own citizens died under his regime.
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- 2 min
Mar 17, 2024 · When it comes to Crimea, Russia has tried to hide its oppression under a veil of public investment, and patriotism.
- 4 min
Mar 17, 2020 · Six years after Russia illegally annexed Crimea, Ukraine lacks the leverage to restore sovereignty over the region, but the West should not accept it since doing so would only encourage Russia...
Mar 18, 2019 · March 18 marks the fifth anniversary of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, which capped the most blatant land grab in Europe since World War II. While the simmering conflict in Donbas now...
