It saddens me more than I can express when even good, well-intentioned people don’t stop to consider the import of what they are saying. Here is one example:
38% of the people of the Crimea took part in the vote. Less than 1% of Crimean Tatars participated. Those 38% who actually came to the poll voted in some way or other that cannot be ascertained by anybody since no observers were present. The elections were conducted by a government that came to power in 2012 amid massive electoral fraud and was ordered by a President who was elected in 2012 as a result of even more massive fraud and intimidation of voters. I was following Russian news very closely in 2011-12, and the sheer number of reports from independent observers and voters who filmed ballots being destroyed and substituted by the bucketful with fake ballots was overwhelming.
I do not believe that anybody can reasonably conclude from this that the people of the Crimea actually made a “decision to leave Ukraine and join Russia.”
Many people seem so mesmerized by the words “democracy,” “voting” and “election” that they lose all capacity or interest to try to see what hides behind those words. For two decades, Russia kept conducting shamelessly rigged “elections”, while the West exulted in the knowledge that, finally, there was democracy in Russia.
The quoted blogger keeps analyzing Russia in terms that have no relevance to that country:
But it has probably boosted Putin’s popularity, and hence his chances in the next election.
Putin makes his own chances at the elections by rigging them. Hundreds of thousands of people in Russia took to the streets in 2011-12 to protest against rigged elections. It’s OK not to know that but if you don’t, then why not abstain from opining on a region that is of so little interest to you?
And the blogger continues, talking about “such nationalistic considerations as have given rise to the divisions in Ukraine.” The problem is precisely that there are no nationalistic considerations and no divisions in Ukraine. Such considerations and divisions are a myth, peddled by Putin’s propaganda machine to justify the invasion of a peaceful country.
The he goes as far as to suggest that there is “mob rule” in Kiev. We talk daily to people who are currently living in the Eastern part of Ukraine. None of them have witnessed any mob rule. The country is at peace. The democratic process is at work. There are gangs of Russian neo-Nazis and provocateurs who try to provoke peaceful citizens but they have not been very successful.
It’s sad that people don’t stop to consider how hurtful such careless statements can be to others.
Clarissa's Blog 
Just curious about where you are getting this information. I have read that about 83% of Crimeans voted. And that that number is probably inflated, but that it was still a high turnout. So how do you know it was exactly 38%? And I have also heard that most Tatars boycotted the referendum but that about 30% of Tatars voted to join Russia. It does not seem so hard to believe. Ukraine’s economy is in such desperate shape, and there seems no hope. The birthrate has fallen beyond replacement levels, so it is really hard to imagine a good future in Ukraine. There is also the political instability, revolutions that go nowhere. I’m not in any way defending Russia, here, I am just saying that in everything I have read I have not heard anyone else be so precise in their statements of electoral turnout.
LikeLike
The report sent by the Russian invaders from the Crimea to the Kremlin said that the turnout was 38%. This information was made public by the leaders of the Crimean Tatar population. It’s a pity you trust Moscow hawks instead of Ukrainian media. The latter also said that 125% of the voters in Sevastopol voted for Russia and ‘independence’. Do you believe that as well?
FYI: The Crimean population consists of 3 major ethnic groups:
– Ukrainians
– Tatars
– Russians – many of them are quite reasonable people.
So there was absolutely no ‘undivided opinion’ as the Moscow propaganda claims. Besides, the voting was held when the peninsula was occupied. I have just published a story by a woman living in the Crimea, ‘Thanks in the City’.
That’s why the whole civilized world never recognized the results of the so-called ‘referendum’. There were those who did, though. Russia, Syria, Cuba, Belorussia, and 5 or 6 more.
Hopefully, this helps.
LikeLike
Thank you. I am not preferring Russian propaganda to Ukrainian media. I haven’t read either Russian or Ukrainian media, just western media reports, and they are frustratingly unhelpful. There are articles by those who are obviously apologists for Russia, and there are articles by people who obviously know nothing about either Russia or Ukraine. So it is a challenge to figure out which sources are accurate. However, this is the first I have heard of these figures, so I am just asking for sources, as any good researcher would do.
LikeLike
So how did the leaders of the Crimean Tatars get this information?
And why did they wait two weeks to make it public?
It does look a little suspicious. Maybe there’s a perfectly good explanation.
This is an important issue. The world economy may collapse again. We should be able to ask these questions.
LikeLike
I’m pretty sure I trust the judgment of Cuba, Belarus, Russia, and the rest of them over the effete wusses in Washington and Brussels who natter on about ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. Neither of those things is or ever will be appropriate for a country like Russia or the Ukraine.
LikeLike
A country like “the Ukraine” doesn’t exist, you brainless loser. Stop posting your idiotic spam to my blog, you pathetic, ugly little weakling.
LikeLike
what do birthrates have to do with any of this? In all developed countries where women are not considered cattle birthrates are low. That’s an amazing thing. In Russia there is a huge push by the corrupt and disgusting Orthodox church to ban abortion and limit access to contraception. Women’s rights are under assault in Russia. Every other movie that comes out has a graphic rape scene which the female character always ends up enjoying. Nothing like that has ever been the case in Ukraine. There is an intense propaganda of patriarchal values in Russia, and it is justified with this insane obsession with birthrates.
LikeLike
And yes, Ukraine is obviously in very bad shape, as I said many times. But it is also obviously much better off than Russia in every single respect. When Ukrainian president disrespects his citizens, they protest. When the Russian president disrespects his citizens in a much more egregious manner, they worship him.
LikeLike
Here’s what I mean about birthrates. http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2014/03/07/ukraines-demographics-doom-it-to-economic-decline/
Both Russia and the United States have birthrates just marginally above replacement levels. Canada doesn’t, but it has high immigration. Western Europe struggles with this, too. Women’s rights are under assault in the U.S., too. If you have a low birthrate, and low immigration, then you have an aging population, few consumers to support your industries, few workers.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.
LikeLike
This is for those who can read in Russian:
http://www.port-folio.us/2014/part34.html
LikeLike
Is the situation hopeless? Is the world headed for thermonuclear war, as Lyndon LaRouche predicts?
I hope not, but I am increasingly pessimistic.
LikeLike
I think that the situation is not hopeless provided that the civilized world acts resolutely and constructively, not the way their predecessors did in the 1930s.
North America and Europe must ACT, not pretend that they are acting. If they don’t, the tiny little leader (do you know the German translation of the word?) will go on, just like his ideological fathers did. He doesn’t seem to have a mother, just 2 fathers, very similar ones, both wearing moustaches.
LikeLike
Technically, there was a very curious assortment of observers in Crimea. It was a mixture of Russian activists from the EU (mostly EU citizens of Russian origin, but also infamous Johan Ba”ckman of Finland, for example), and, unexpectedly, some representatives of ultra right-wing European parties, like Le Pen’s one in France, and something similar form Austria. That was something I did not expect. I mean – these two groups should hate each other… Apparently, Putin has been somewhat successful at marketing himself as the only remaining defender of “traditional Christian/European values”… (On a second thought – this agrees with the idea that the continuum of fascism vs anti-fascism is not a line but a circle.)
And I do not agree with you on nationalism. Of course Putin’s propaganda exaggerates everything by a factor of about ten, and in reality there is no chance whatsoever of Ukrainians engaging in ethnic cleansing of Russians. However, I have reasons to believe that the dream of the Western Ukrainians is something along the lines of Baltic States or, if we need North-American analogy, PQ-run Quebec. Namely – the “national state” existing for the purpose of “preserving one particular ethnic/linguistic group for all eternity”, not in the best interests of ALL its people. Thus, the ethnic Russians do have some right to be alarmed. Of course this is not the reason for foreign intervention. And the new Ukrainian government is not proposing anything that previous governments did not propose from time to time. But pretending that nationalism does not factor into that complex equation at all is not right, in my opinion.
One can pursue Quebec analogies a bit further… Imagine PQ is not a purely political organization, but somehow acquired some militia, with demonstrated willingness to fight and to die for a cause… I imagined, and came to a conclusion that in this case, if I will not be able to escape Quebec with dignity, I’d seek an opportunity to join some anglophone federalist militia. Or Montreal separatists, seeking to separate from Quebec and rejoin Canada. (See the parallels?) Now, I personally would not go as far as desecrating Quebec flags (because opponents deserve respect) or lobbying for military intervention by The Rest of Canada (because I believe the best long-term solutions are not those imposed by external force), but I can imagine some “angryphones” would go further than me under those circumstances.
I know you do not think Quebec is a proper analogy for Ukraine… (Frankly, I think you are a bit biased by Ukrainian patriotism… No shame in that, I am also cutting my country some slack it does not deserve, for patriotic reasons.) But Quebec is extremely good for one particular purpose – it demonstrates that attempts to build “national state” of one ethnic/linguistic group on a territory populated by multiple ethnic groups cause great tension completely independently of Kremlin’s involvement in the process*. Some kinds of nation-building should just be pronounced universally unethical…
(* on a second thought, if I were someone with a plan to weaken the West and with some billions of extra oil money, I might consider supporting Quebec, Catalan, Scottish and all other separatists…)
LikeLike
I recently met a student from Lithuania who speaks almost no Russian. In Ukraine, such people simply do not exist. Everybody speaks Russian. And I mean 100% of population of all ages. Who would discriminate against whom in this situation?
LikeLike
—Who would discriminate against whom in this situation?
People who identify themselves as “true” Ukrainians and speak Ukrainian as primary language against the Russian-speakers. In the end of the Soviet era everyone in the Baltic States could speak Russian too. That did not prevent them from making the decision to rebuild their states as national states (as defined above).
LikeLike
“People who identify themselves as “true” Ukrainians and speak Ukrainian as primary language against the Russian-speakers”
– Yes, all three of them are an enormous force. 🙂 🙂 Maybe in a hundred years such people will have a presence in Ukraine but for now, they are simply not there.
LikeLike
Within the USSR, it was super prestigious to be Baltic. You know it’s true. There was nothing more prestigious than that.
And being Ukrainian was the opposite. We are all stuid country bumpkins who eat salo, speak a funny peasant language and are all like Verka Serdiuchka. As a result, Baltic people never interiorized the kind of shame for his or her culture that any Ukrainian carries around. Your emissary to Russia was Urmas Ott and all of these elegant and mysterious Baltic actors. And our emissary is Serdiuchka. So where exactly would any pride in Ukraine come from? The Maidan will maybe serve that purpose 30 years from now. But today?
LikeLike