Listen to the majority of people in Crimea!!
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26465962#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-saThey want to join Russia.
According to Ukraine's interim government:
Ukraine's new interim government does not recognise the leadership in Crimea - which was sworn in at an emergency session while the building was under siege from pro-Russian armed men last week.
A spokeswoman for Acting President Olexander Turchynov said those in charge in Crimea "are forced to work under the barrel of a gun and all their decisions are dictated by fear and are illegal".
Anyway, regarding pretenses, I agree with neutral position here. Speaking about the Ukraine alone, both sides are dicks. It is okay to protest things loudly. But they did staged a coup IMO, the police in Kiev was fed up and let go the security of the MP building, and some of the protesters entered the building, then probably (speculating) under the threat of Maidan most brazen protesters, they yielded to their demands and ousted the Yanukovich regime.
Crimea and most of the Eastern parts of Ukraine probably also faced the same problem: They were under heavy Russian influence and tribalism attitude forced them to lean on Russian authorities. But I would see their voice, despite using similar heavy handed tactics, are as legitimate as Ukraine's current interim government. Moreover, the land has been historically tied to the Tatars and Don Cossacks, and then Russia, and then given to the Ukrainian, just recently. The tribalism attitude however, doesn't really help the image of Russian immigrants everywhere.
Speaking about Russia, they are dicks, just like what US did to Iraq. But I see that Russia is concerned about Russian speaking people there, which is quite a legitimate concern. Moreover, it has a military base there, which could face serious reprisal if anarchist branch of Euro Maidan protesters reach Crimean region.
I can imagine American military personnel doing the same in their foreign military bases, when facing similar situation, but with much less welcome. Basically, what they did in Crimea was like what if Hawaii was given to Japan, and then something went wrong with Japanese politics, so US Navy troops in Pearl Harbour fanned out to Honolulu and other towns in Oahu to secure the situation. From what I see in photographs, Russian's Sevastopol base is unlike Guantanamo, it is not a maximum security prison-style enclave, but more like integrated military base within the city.
Aaaanyway, my American boss is a former member of National Guard, he was stationed in Okinawa. CNN covered an anti-US base demonstration of local residents. They showed violent scenes of protesters throwing paints, rocking the perimeter fences. He got a call from his mom, with worried voice. In reality, he said that the protesters were really polite. They did threw paint on the guard post, but they clean it before leaving. The CNN didn't show the protesters sweeping and wiping still-wet paint from US military base's guard post building.
In printed edition of our biggest newspaper, Kompas, showed Ukrainian soldier playing football in front of the Russian on watch. Here is other source:
http://knlive.ctvnews.ca/soccer-diffuses-tense-standoff-between-russian-ukrainian-troops-1.1714095
