Posted on 03/16/2014 11:53:06 AM PDT by 5etester
Polling stations in Crimea have closed, the referendum is over. According to the exit polls, 93 percent of people voted for Crimea's accession to Russia at the referendum.
A total of 93 percent of residents of Crimea voted for joining Russia at a referendum on Sunday, an exit poll publicized by the Rossiya 24 TV channel shows.
Seven percent of Crimeans favored being a part of Ukraine, it shows. The voter turnout exceeded 80 percent, the Crimean News Agency reported.
The voting ended at 20:00 pm local time. Crimeans were able to cast votes at 1,205 polling station. Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_16/93-of-voters-suppport-Crimeas-accession-to-Russia-exit-polls-8596/
I am all in favor of caning for certain crimes.
In America we don’t cane teenage vandals and cause them to spend a week in the hospital on their bellies.
No, we’re much too kind for that.
We pitch them into jail for six months with hardened criminals. At great risk of assault and quite possibly repeated gang rape.
If I were a teenage vandal, I know which punishment I’d prefer.
All the freebies come from the state government and the federal government. They won’t vote to do away with the benefits smorgasbord.
And you’d need a very stern tyranny to prevent the inevitable revenge.
Ukrainians and Tatars boycotted the referendum. And even if the status quo had been offered, very few voters would have chosen to stay with Ukraine. Of those who did choose the broader autonomy option, only 7% backed it.
Basically that means 9 out 10 ethnic Russian voters chose rejoining Russia, which is pretty impressive considering that ethnic Russians make up 60% of Crimean population. Anyway, I have no doubt this is the democratic desire, freely expressed, of most Crimeans.
So 93% voted to seceded from Ukraine and the other 7% voted to secede from Ukraine.
No option for ‘Russia go home’.
I assume there were international observers, and we’ll be hearing more about how “fair” the results were.
Something that hasn’t gotten a lot of mention is that Ukraine is a basket case economically and politically.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that a good many in Ukraine would vote to be part of Russia simply because it is at present a reasonably stable state. Especially if they didn’t have longstanding emotional ties to Ukraine.
After all, Ukraine has only been an independent state for less than 25 years. Not a lot of time to work up a tremendous amount of patriotism.
The question is dumb because Mexico has nothing to offer Californians. That’s why Mexicans (hardly the majority) come here. Apples and oranges.
If the majority had been Ukrainian, Russia would never have gone into Crimea.
Then it again its fortuitous most of the population was already pro-Russian.
Highly doubtful.
Never mind Yanukovych being the Kremlin’s man.
Tatars = Muslims
Agreed. I think bread and butter issues were more important for voters than patriotism. Living standards, wages, pensions, and quality of life would get better under Russian rule. And Russia has already promised to kick in $1 billion in upgrading Crimea’s infrastructure - with billions more to come. And that was very attractive for the electorate today.
So, Captain Obvious?
If Crimea heavily favors Russia then why all of the intimidation in the form of a Russian military occupation to insure that the ahem vote went their way?
There were two options on the ballot. Secede from Ukraine or seceded from Ukraine. Where was the option for Russian military go home?
From an earlier post:
Self-determination is a universal principle. But any referendum done at the point of a gun is illegitimate.
So let's look at the previous referendums that Crimea has had to get an idea of just how pro-Russian they really are.
Crimea held a referendum in January 1991 to effectively separate themselves from the collapsing USSR with 94% of the vote.
Crimea held another referendum declaring themselves an autonomous republic of Ukraine in December 1991 with 54% of the vote, officially separating themselves from the USSR and joining Ukraine.
The rest of Ukraine voted for independence with 90% of the vote.
It was the closest vote in the entire Ukraine, with a bare majority favoring joining Ukraine, but it WAS a majority. Keep in mind also that at this time most of the Tatars that were to return later had not arrived yet, and any legitimate referendum today would include their votes.
If people wanted them to go home, there wouldn’t have been a referendum in the first place.
I don’t think the West can stop it - now its up to Russia’s Parliament and I have no doubt Crimea’s accession will be shortly approved.
Its a fait accompli.
Adios Commiefornia!
It took a foreign military occupation and ridiculous ballot choices to ensure that.
By Kruschev, who was Ukranian, and it still had autonomy and that Russian naval base.
Shouldn't we be more concerned that our troops and the billions in aid should be used defending our border with Mexico and kicking out and keeping out the invaders in the US?
So with Russian troops and armor on the Ukrainian border the next vote will be for the Ukraine east of the Dnieper to become part of Russia. Guess how that vote will go.
CC
“Ukrainians and Tatars boycotted the referendum.” “
If the reported election results were generally true as you falsely claim, it would be impossible for the Ukrainians and Tatars to have substantially “boycotted the referendum.” The numbers simply don’t add up that way. they make up about 35 percent of the population. If they boycotted the election, the turnout could not possibly have been more than 65 percent, yet the Russians are claiming a 79-80 percent turnout of the voters.
“And even if the status quo had been offered, very few voters would have chosen to stay with Ukraine.”
Your statement is false propaganda. In a previous election the Crimean vote in favor of independence and associating the Crimea with the Ukraine was 54 percent, which reflected the Russian demographic less a sizable percentage of enthnic Russians who wanted no part of Russia.
“Basically that means 9 out 10 ethnic Russian voters chose rejoining Russia, which is pretty impressive considering that ethnic Russians make up 60% of Crimean population.”
That statement os more false propaganda, given the fact that 9 out of 10 ethnic Russian voters would constitute no more than 52 percent of the total eligible voters, and with a total boycott by the Ukrainians and Tatars as you claimed occurred would constitute a turnout of no maore than 52 percent instead of the claimed 79-80 percent.
“Anyway, I have no doubt this is the democratic desire, freely expressed, of most Crimeans.”
Given your propensity to negligently broadcast Putin’s obscenely false propaganda with no regard for the reality of the numbers involved, it begs the question why anyone would be tempted to believe anything you have to say in the way of an opinion in support of such obvious disinformation.
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