Had the Kremlin leader cared at all about the residents of the Crimean peninsula, stolen from Ukraine, he would not have set up his KGB-style provocations during holiday season.
Instead, he gave a very untimely gift to the Crimeans in early August, having come up with a bogeyman story about the evil "Ukrainian terrorists" and shelling of Crimea by armored vehicles from mainland Ukraine.
But where is the logic? In the first days of August, the Russians close up the Kerch ferry lane, in order to deploy in Crimea new military equipment, then transport it to Dzhankoy and other Crimean cities, and then announce that they are searching in the north of the peninsula for a group of people, dressed in uniforms of soldiers of the Russian army, they close down the checkpoint at the administrative border with mainland Ukraine, and then run a story about the arrest of "terrorists"…
Where is the evidence of attacks by Ukrainian armed forces on the territory of Crimea? Why are the members of the "Ukrainian sabotage group" Crimean residents with Russian passports, with only one Ukrainian, who is moreover either kidnapped from the territory of Ukraine or unfairly lured into the Crimea?
How long will the Russian leader keep singing this song about the illegitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities? One might want to remind him that, since the Revolution of 2014, three waves of elections have already passed in Ukraine - presidential, parliamentary and local.
And the most important question is why would Ukraine want this? How can any terrorist attacks bring the return of the peninsula to Ukraine?
The feeling that we are witnessing the beginning of a large-scale special operation of Russian spec-ops forces, aiming at influencing both the domestic set-up (in connection with the upcoming elections to the Russian State Duma) and the international relations, was confirmed by Putin, himself.
On the heels of the earlier statements, he passed his recommendations to the civilized democratic world to inflict pressure on Kyiv, and to the Ukrainians – not to be distracted from the accumulation of irritation over "the poor state of economy" due to the rule of the “junta”. I wonder how long will the Russian leader sing this song about the illegitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities? One might want to remind him that, since the Revolution of 2014, three waves of elections have already passed in Ukraine - presidential, parliamentary and local. The regime was changing the way the Ukrainians wanted it to change.
Putin always sets up a mess during the Olympics: in 2008, there was an armed invasion of Georgia, in 2014 – the Russian army invaded Crimea. That’s a kind of an "Olympic" tradition in Russia
In the recent months, many analysts, including those from Russia, acknowledged that Moscow doesn’t know what to do with the post-revolutionary Ukraine. Neither do the Russian leaders know how to continue their Donbas campaign and get out of the Minsk process painlessly for the initiators of war. According to their assessments, the situation is now frozen, so the Kremlin decided to give a stone a push. As we know, Putin always sets up a mess during the Olympics: in 2008, there was an armed invasion of Georgia, in 2014 – the Russian army invaded Crimea. That’s a kind of an "Olympic" tradition in Russia.
But our tradition is not to succumb to provocations and not to bend to the will of a dangerous enemy, who has neither honor, nor dignity. This is our land, and we have nowhere else to go...
Meanwhile, it is painful to see what is happening to Crimea and the Crimeans. First, they were fed fears of a fictitious threat coming from the "Ukrainian fascists", then they were robbed of their Homeland, and now they are targets of special services. I remember how the Crimean puppet administration lured Ukrainian tourists to rest on empty Crimean beaches and offered the Ukrainian youth to come for season jobs serving Russian elite at Crimean resorts. Now it is clear what can await our citizens in case they go for a trip to the occupied peninsula. Any innocent Ukrainian can face a real threat of terrorism charges and a backpack carefully prepared by the FSB, full with “material evidence” of their “subversive activity”. And there is no chance to prove that you are simply a tourist.
Mahatma Gandhi once said the words that are relevant for us today: “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”
Yuriy Kulikov
