Posted on 03/16/2014 5:16:44 PM PDT by mandaladon
Crimean voters on Sunday overwhelmingly backed a referendum to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, in an election denounced by the United States, Europe and the Ukrainian government as illegal and destabilizing.
Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered above jubilant crowds after the vote, which election officials said stood at 95 percent with more than half of the ballots counted.
The vote, the final results of which were not expected until Monday, offered voters on the strategic Black Sea peninsula the choice of seeking annexation by Russia or remaining in Ukraine with greater autonomy.
Opponents of secession appeared to largely stay away Sunday, denouncing the vote as a cynical power play/land grab by Russia. But turnout was reported to be well above the 50 percent that would make the referendum binding -- and secession was expected to be approved overwhelmingly.
"We want to go back home, and today we are going back home," said Viktoria Chernyshova, a 38-year-old businesswoman. "We needed to save ourselves from those unprincipled clowns who have taken power in Kiev."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If that is your belief, then you a truly and hopelessly lost to reality and unappreciative of the liberties enjoyed by U.S. citizens. Russia has never such a breadth of true freedoms yet. They have had some tastings of freedom, but only a bare ghost of it. That is not just my opinion, but it is the opinion of many Russian immigrants I have known.
“If that is your belief, then you a truly and hopelessly lost to reality and unappreciative of the liberties enjoyed by U.S. citizens.”
Russia has been moving in the right direction, we have been moving in the wrong direction.
So let me ask you straight up. Forgetting for the moment that we are talking about a former KGB agent and an anti American Muslim, If you had the choice of Putin or Obama to lead our nation (and that was your only choice), who would you choose?
This is discouraging. And no doubt facilitated by a lack of leadership in the West.
What does the West care about furthering? Homosexuality, Climate Paranoia, Anti-Christianity, Islam, Gun Grabbing.
The West is currently very #’d up.
>> The people on here bitching about Crimea leaving Ukraine
It’s not about what Crimea is “leaving”, but what it’s joining.
Absolutely NOT!
Mexicans should stay here in America then later claim it as their land. They can burn all American books. Truly, they should take over lands just like rat-putin is doing.
If any American is paying any attention, the same is being done here in America as is being done in russia. All who are rooting for russians are rooting for mexicans. Think about it.
Putin is a patriot for Russia and wants to make his country stronger. Imagine where we’d be today if we had had a president for the last 5 years who loved our country and wanted us to be the most powerful country in the world. We have the exact opposite and are suffering for it.
I want to live in the most FREE country in the world! I don't care about world power.
“Over 70 International Observers documented and announced this was so”
135 OSCE observers from 23 countries monitored the referendum; 650 journalists from all over the world came to Crimea for the occasion. Everything went fine and the “tanks were not in the streets”.
The problem for Putin is that the Ukrainians had just overthrown a corrupt kleptocratic Russian president. He didn’t need any of his own people getting any ideas, so he creates a big distraction and grabs the Crimea.
That said, we have little reason to be getting deeply involved in drawing lines we can’t enforce. That is dumb, dumb, dumb, but no thinking person ever accused Barry or Lurch of being very smart, other than at getting elected and marrying rich women, respectively.
I continue to be stunned at the lack of ability of most posters on this site (FR) in 2014 to recognize the likely consequences of what's happening, if the US and particularly its people view this as a low stakes game, not worth our effort, etc. In years gone by, dead-on analysis would have been abundant here...
It's way too late tonight for me to lay everything out in detail AGAIN. I have to get some sleep. But I also must post to be able to sleep.
I am not saying the U.S. should send in ground forces. But we AND the EU countries must support Ukraine with at least the means to defend itself. The consequence of not doing so is the high likelyhood of at least a "medium size" nuclear war, maybe not in my lifetime, but in the next 40 years or so. Ironically, that war might well not involve Russia.
If the reasons for this are not obvious, one might try putting aside relative trivialities such as dislike for the EU or Putin or Soros or McCain or Muslims or Euro-leaning Ukranians or Russians. Reconsider history and the larger picture with a clear mind...
Exactly.
Really? been there? I was many times in the 90s and I am here to tell you they have a lot more freedom than we do. They live in a utopia in fact. There is no child protective services to tell them how to raise their children, so when the school had a holiday, the kids mostly ran free and various people in the apts looked after them off and on. There are no animal services folk to tell you how many pets you can have and what kinds of licenses you are required to purchase. You can do all the additions and construction and changes you want to your OWNED property, and no one charges you a fee or makes you fill out forms to get approval. The Russians actually believe in property rights. Amazing I know.
You want to hear more? Let me know. They have a flat tax and freedoms that disappeared from this country a long time ago.
Why?
Unfortunately, with that mindset you won't be free for long. With luck, perhaps you'll "only" be glowing gas, a sort of freedom, I suppose...
Think, for God’s sake!
Hint: Does the number 5000 mean anything to you?
One thing you could choose to do is elaborate in specifics about the claims you have made. Guessing games don’t work well for me.
The Muslim Tatars boycotted the vote and are pretty butt hurt about the whole deal. The rest of the population? They approve.
We like to peddle democracy and self determination in choosing leaders as the solution to the worlds problems and then we get all offended when the vote doesn’t go the way we want it to go.
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