Recently, one year after Crimea was annexed by the
Russian Federation, a celebratory
President Putin admitted that Crimea was of interest to him prior to the so
called referendum which had been the ostensible basis for annexation. Putin
boasted that the subject of Crimea's return to Russia came up when he acted in
February 2014 to save the life of Ukraine's ousted president Yanukovich who was
on the run, abandoned and about to be captured by the Ukrainians. It was then, according to Putin, that he gave
the order to reunite Crimea with the motherland and personally acted as
commander-in-chief. The concept of reunification itself is specious as Russian
connection with Crimea is historically tenuous and replete with crimes.
