Mmmhhh ok then I guess we remain on opposite views. I respect your opinion though as you are one of the most intelligent members

And I respect yours

Protests in Kyiv started for entirely different reasons, if you are talking about those

I meant protests in Crimea, not Kiev.

Hot mess.

As a people who are going through every single violation of human rights in Venezuela (including Murder and Torture by our government) I honestly believe the international community is too frightened to do anything to help anyone nowadays.

Unless your country matters in the grand scheme of things that is. Venezuela's dictatorship is keeping the members of the United Nations well fed with oil, enough to fill their ears and ignore the screams of our students being murdered everyday for protesting for a chance of a future by our National Guard (sworn to protect us) and armed gangs raiding our streets and homes, burning universities and viciously murdering people, all enforced by the government.

I'm confused a little as I haven't followed the story properly in the past week. Crimea voted democratically to join Russia, right? So why is the west opposed to it when they stay promoting democracy throughout the world? Or was it not a democratic vote? Someone educate me please ^_^

I will try...

1, Crimea had a referendum where they decided that they want to separate from Ukraine and re-join Russia (whom they asked for help). If the referendum was objective is questionable, but Crimea had the tendencies to separate itself from Ukraine for many years. Most of the population of Crimea are ethnic Russians.

2, The results of the Crimean referendum organised by Crimean parliament (without permission of Ukrainian government) about separation from Ukraine cant be accepted by West. One part of a country simply cant make a decision like this alone. The way how it was made opposes the international law. If Crimea wants to be separated from Ukraine legally, they need an agreement from the Ukrainian government and another referendum should be held, this time in Ukraine, because Ukrainian people have to support them and agree with their separation (what is unlikely to happen).

3, New Ukrainian government proclaimed the Crimean parliament and its decissions as illegal.

Russia doesnt recognize the new Ukrainian government as legitimate either, because this government was formed by Euromaidan protests in Kiev, there were no democraticic elections, so large part of Ukrainian population is not even represented by the new Ukrainian government at all.

Ukraine, Crimea and Russia simply cant even discuss the separation of Crimea legally, because the governments dont recognise each other as legitimate and wont accept decissions made by the other.

4, Not only Crimea wants to re-join Russia. The whole eastern part of Ukraine is very pro-Russian too. The whole population of Ukraine is divided into two equally large groups, one pro-Russian and the other West-oriented. Several regions of Ukraine already proclaimed that they want to follow Crimea and separate themselves from Ukraine, like for example Donetsk region, Odessa region or Kharkov region. This can tear the whole country apart. Ukrainian government simply cant let it happen.

5, The strategical importance of Crimea is immense, not only for Russia, but from geo-political regard. If Russia loses their military influence in Black Sea, it will have direct consequences for example for Syria (Syria gets their military and humanitarian support directly from Crimean port Sevastopol, where Russia has their largest warm water naval base), and many other countries. Russia wont let that happen.

Its a very complicated situation, but I personally think that for Ukraine it would be better to leave Crimea be rather than risk a war conflict with Russia over a land which dont want to stay with them... I just hope it can be solved peacefully

What scares me about this is that Catalonia ( where I live) wants to follow this same path, a referendum is fine and the best thing, but not the way that Putin has set this

Thank you! Wow this really is a mess then. I hope they can work things out without weapons.

Isn't this because the citizens voted for it and wanted to join Russia?

They held a referendum and 96.77% of voters said that wanted to re-join Russia.

What's the big meltdown for then? If the people who live there want to join Russia then let them, and get over it. It doesn't affect you. Cripes.

Sis, the referendum was illegal, 96.77% can say yes, but if the biggest part of the country isn't allowed to vote or doesn't vote cuz it's not legal anyway, you get a very tainted picture of reality.

Crimea is a region of Ukraine, imagine Mexico sends troops to Texas and announces they will hold a referendum where people can vote for Texas to become part of Mexico, 96% said yes cuz the only people who voted were Mexican-Americans, and Mexico declares it is now part of their country.... And why should the US respond, right? None of the other States are affected by it

All areas that have a Russian-Majority should be transferred to Russia. SORRY but how can countries function when large groups of people do not want to be apart of the said function? I am on the Ukraine's side but why would you want people who LEGITIMATELY have grievances about what country they are citizens of so they can create unrest and disturbances? If Ukraine was to be totally Ukrainian then all the Ukrainian government has to worry about economics and not sociological aspects.

lol, come on, do you really think that's a genuine number? If it is, it would pretty much be the first time in history that an important election/poll under Putin's Russia has been conducted fairly without any corruption. As it stands, around 40% of Crimea is made up of ethnic Ukrainians and Tatars.

It must feel so strange for the people living there... y'know, that they're now officially Russians.

the referendum was mock and fake and opposers to Russia have been tortured and killed... not the best atmosphere for a vote

Life isn't as simple as that sis. The main reason why it is a Russian majority is because of the Soviet Union's mixed in with Nazi Germany's deportation, displacement and forced famines of Ukrainians and particularly ethnic Tatars, who were the majority before the Soviet Union. It isn't Russia's to take. Well, it shouldn't be, anyway.

There were three casualties- one Crimean Tatar was found dead and two soldiers (one Ukrainian soldier was shot in the neck yesterday and one pro-Russian soldier was shot in naval base, also yesterday).

The referendum went smoothly, there was no violence. If the referendum was rigged, it was done when the votes were counted, not by how the voters were treated.

Crimean Tatars (who are anti-Russian for obvious reasons and make 12% of Crimean population) boycotted the referendum. The attendance was 80%. Many ethnic Ukrainians are pro-Russian and some ethnic Russians want to stay with Ukraine. You cant really judge the results by ethnicity.

I'm sorry for the Crimean gays. Most of the Crimeans wanted to be part of Russia tho.