Putin leads massive Moscow street party on Crimea anniversary

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Source: Mashable

MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of Russians swarmed central Moscow on Wednesday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea.

At a Red Square rally dubbed "We Are Together," the rowdy crowd sang, danced and chanted "Sevastopol! Crimea! Russia!" and "Glory to Russia!" as the country's top musical acts performed. President Vladimir Putin also delivered an address in which he took the opportunity to tell Kiev in so many words, hey, I took your land, but no hard feelings.

"I have always believed that Russians and Ukrainians are one people," Putin said. "I still think so."

Those in the crowd, like Alexander, a Cossack who attended the rally, were thrilled that "Crimea has returned" to Russia after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine in 1954. Vladimir, a street cleaner who also attended, said Crimea has always been Russian land. "We didn't take Crimea — this was determined by the people."

Read more: http://mashable.com/2015/03/18/moscow-crimea-anniversary/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link

---

Just to be clear: When Vlad says that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people", he doesn't mean it like they are all part of one human family, let's buy the world a Coke.

He means that he thinks Ukrainians don't exist as a culture separate from Russia. And that is very dangerous thinking.

[zeemike]

1. There is lots of dangerous thinking going on.

Including the US that thinks they should have a say in it.
But we have become war mongers because there is big money in it and so we must have perpetual war, and a great and evil empire to fight against...Russia is next on the list.

[MrTriumph]

2. Bunk. We shouldn't let a bully- Putin- get his way.

Isn't it about time for you to stop the self-hate? This may surprise you, Mike, but we are not the bad guys in the Ukraine.

[zeemike]

3. I do not identify myself with war mongers.

So it is not self hate.
Bad guys do hate and you seem to want us to hate Putin, someone we do not know except from images created for us by media...I don't play that game.

Isn't it about time we stopped being manipulated with hate?...I know I am tired of it.

[NuclearDem]

7. Wow, fuck that.

That bastard is starting a campaign of persecution against the Russian LGBT community, routinely assassinates or jails dissidents, and has invaded two former Soviet republics during his time in office.

That fucker deserves all the hate he's getting. Why is it that every time you show up in a thread about Russia or Putin, you seem to do every damn thing in your power to make excuses for that totalitarian warmongering bigot?

[zeemike]

9. So you can justify your hate.

Well good for you...as can all those who hate will do.
If I show up it is to provide a different perspective to the hate talk...sorry if it interferes with your plan.
But don't worry hate always wins don't it?...because hate is stronger than love because it is corrosive, and can rust away any feelings of humanity with constant applications.

[NuclearDem]

10. Fucking unbelievable.

I'm actually at a loss for words.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

8. Non sequitur. nt

[joshcryer]

4. Good old Russification.

Still makes me laugh how people were all up in arms about Ukrainians wanting to make Ukrainian the only official language of Ukraine.

Whilst that is literally the law in Russia...

[davidpdx]

5. The double standard is only ok in Mother Russia.

[happyslug]

12. What Double Standard? Russia permits its member Republics to have other official languages

See my cite below, but each Republic in the Russian Federation may have an official language other then Russian. In the Crimea, those include not only Ukrainian but Tartar in addition to Russian.

[happyslug]

11. But each Republic in Russia can have its own official language

Last edited Fri Mar 20, 2015, 02:43 PM - Edit history (1)

And under that law Ukrainian is an official language in both the Crimea and Sevastopol. Thus when laws are passed or regulations issued they are also printed in Ukrainian in the Crimea and Sevastopol in addition to Russian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Russia

As to the official languages in Now Russia Crimea:

Putin also said Russia would support the "rehabilitation of a repressed people" by preserving three official languages: Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/08/putin-addresses-russia-parliament-crimea-2014814112124728279.html

You have to understand that Russia is a federation with various degrees of "Republics" within its borders with various degrees of independence from Moscow. Each of these Republics can (and most have) adopted an official language other then Russia. Under Russia Federation Law, Russia is still an official language in those Republics, but so is whatever other language that Republic makes its official language.

As to the Crimea, 77% of the population speaks Russian at home (While only 58% of the population say they are Russian nationality). 10% of the population speaks Ukrainian, through 24% of the population claim Ukrainian Nationality. Another 10,7% speak Tartar, while 11.4% claim to be Tartar.

This is now unusual in Eastern Europe. Under the Soviet Union all Citizen of the Soviet Union had to claim a Nationality upon reaching age 18. If both of they parents were of one nationality, they had to go by that same nationality. If both parents were of DIFFERENT Nationality, they had to option of picking one or the other. Once picked it was their nationality for life. The Soviet system rejected the concept of someone being of more then one nationality.

Language is a better gauge of how the people of the former Soviet Union sees themselves. Thus in the Crimea, 1/2 of the people who call themselves Ukrainians speak Russian at home. The Tartars seems to speak only Tartar at home. Thus 77% of the population of the Crimea speak Russia and see Russia as their homeland, 10% see the Ukraine and 10% want an independent "Tartaristan" (but also realized that is NOT possible given who lives in the Crimea today).

Side note: In today's Russia Federation, the second largest language is Tartar, spoken in the already existing Republic of Tartarstan, which is in the Volga Water Shed. Thus the name Tatarstan is already taken within the Russian Federation. Thus while I use the term "Tartaristan" above, some other name would have be picked, such as "Central Crimea" etc for any independent Tartar republic in the Crimea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatarstan

[MBS]

6. dangerous thinking indeed

Last edited Thu Mar 19, 2015, 06:09 AM - Edit history (3)

also incorrect! Very, very upsetting and dangerous situation. I feel for the citizens of Ukraine right now.