Moscow marks the first anniversary of Crimea reunification with Russia

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Published: 05.05.2015 | 15:00

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The slogan, “Crimea is ours!” highlighted the dawn of a new geopolitical reality, the reunification of the Crimea with its historical motherland, Russia. The whole country celebrated the new national jubilee, which was born on March 16, when a referendum on the status of the Crimean peninsula was held with a resounding victory, till March 18, when Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a landmark and historic speech in the Kremlin, poetically heralded, “Crimea and Sevastopol, after years of sailing [in foreign waters] have finally returned to their home harbor.”

The emphatic statement, “Crimea is our!”, fully underscores the national belief that Crimea will never again be handed over to anyone. This means that the majority of Russians, along with their political leaders, absolutely don't care about the opinions of the rest of the world, especially western countries, which have their own, so-called dissenting, opinion, on the new status of the peninsula.

Russians don't give a dime about the West and its sanctions because, the truth, the historical truth, is on their side. This is because the landmark decision taken in March 2014 only served to correct the blatant injustice done against Russia and Crimea in the 1950s, when the Soviet leadership, in violation of all the USSR constitutional norms, rules and regulations, transferred the peninsula from Russia to Ukraine. But, back then, this was not a big deal as both republics were parts of the same country, a situation that dramatically changed with the implosion of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

The Crimeans’ fate was further worsened by the unwillingness and/or lack of intelligence among the new post-Soviet Russian leaders to demand the return of Crimea back to Russia after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. After all, such a possibility did exist, but the new Russian leaders did not make use of it, fearing that Kiev would not put its signature to the Belovezhskaya agreements (Belavezha Accords), better known as the “Belovezhskaya coup,” which effectively dissolved the Soviet empire in the 1990s.

Imposing sanctions on Russia in general and the Crimea in particular, the western powers had set themselves a goal of weakening the Russian economy, while making the Crimea an uncomfortable place for living and unattractive for businesses. All these measures reflect a materialistic approach to geopolitical issues, a behavior so typical for the West, which often forgets about spirituality and other intangible human values. After all, no amount of money, economic gains and losses, political difficulties or travel bans and limitations to western countries and other related problems can be used to measure the evident moral benefit from the reunification of the Crimea with Russia.

For example, how can one measure the joy on the faces of most of the Crimeans and Russians, the “tears of happiness” in the eyes of the acting Sevastopol chairman, Alexei Chaly, at the historic reunion ceremony in the Kremlin? Similarly, how can one measure the sense of national pride among Russian citizens who really had done “something unprecedented,” a historic and landmark event?

After all, no one nation or country on earth, at least in modern times, has ever achieved such a feat, namely, return an illegally transferred territory to its historical owners exclusively by peaceful means. Without war, deaths of innocent people masked under various euphonious slogans, such as in the name of a brighter future, democratization of society,  protection of the rights of the oppressed people, or so-called "humanitarian intervention," etc.

Even if one adopts the material approach, the reunification of the Crimea with Russia, honestly speaking, really has brought with it a lot of material benefits. After all, Russia has regained a vast territory, which is comparable to the sizes of seeveral major European countries combined, and at least over 2mln of so-called “new citizens.”

Most of the adult part of “these new citizens” represents a highly educated workforce with different professions and qualifications, meaning that it can instantly contribute to, and possitively impact, on Russia's GDP, enrich and further diversify its cultural and ethinc composition and spiritual heritage, increase its scientific potential, sports and military prowess, etc. All these gains surpass all the damages and deprivations resulting from the sanctions or the unfriendly position of the West on the Crimean issue in particular and the entire Ukrainian crisis as a whole.

Russia will suffer from, but will certainly survive, these sanctions and related difficulties, but never again will anyone in the country be willing to give the Crimea to someone else and/or betray the Crimeans for the sake of geopolitical expediency or other causes and reasons, especially after all that happened over the past 12 months. And, the current Russian leadership, headed by highly popular Putin, will definitely not embark on such a course, knowing fully well that such a move would mean the beginning of the demise of Russia as a global superpower and full loss of respect among peers on the international arena.

Indeed, this was not the reason, why Putin, in his words, was even willing to put the country's most lethal armaments, nuclear weapons, on fully military alert in March last year in case some hotheads and war hawks in some countries wanted to interfere or torpedo the new emerging geopolitical reality resulting from reunion of the Crimean peninsula to its motherland.

There had been some information about some telephone conversations between Putin and US President Barack Obama in those critical moments of March 2014. The details of the talks are sketchy at best, as no official data had been released. But given the fact that the US, which is always ready to solve all problematic issues that run counter to its interests by military means, finally limited its response to the Crimean issue to purely economic and political measures, notably sanctions, one can only guess the tonality of Putin's conviction of intents in the conversation with his US counterpart.

The primary challenge for the Kremlin today is to transform the peninsula  from a poor, federal government subsidy-dependent and backward region into a self-sufficient prosperous province, which is fully attractive for living and entrepreneurship. The Crimean peninsula has all it takes to achieve such goals. It is very rich in human and natural resources, and with effective management and provision of adequate assistance from the Moscow-based federal government, has every chance of becoming an economically robust region.

The economic growth drivers should be the region's core traditional industries, such as tourism, agribusiness, winemaking, logistics, transportation and so forth. The federal government's plans to build a bridge should contribute to and fasttrack the renaissance of the region, make it more accessible, and thus linking it directly (and bypassing the dangerous Ukrainian transit) to the Russian mainland.

In short, there is a lot of work to be done, but there is comfort in the willingness of both the federal and local authorities to solve as soon as possible all the problems that had accumulated over 20 years of the region being a part modern independent Ukraine, which simply did not care for the region's residents, except for the Crimean Tatars. However, Kiev's plans to use this minority ethnic group as a political tool to destabilize the peninsula did not work in March 2014. The group was simply outnumbered and overwhelmed by the larger Russian majority.

Hence, the main task of the Russian government, from the president and his prime minister down to the lowest ranked bureaucrats, is to do everything possible and impossible so that none of the over 2mln Crimeans that happily voted for their region’s reunification with Russia in the epoch-making spring of 2014 will never have any reasons whatsoever to regret their fully informed and historical decision.

After all, the fates of “the Russian Crimeans” will be closely monitored regionally and globally, especially in Kiev, Brussels, Washington and elsewhere by Russophobes, for the slightest opportunities to ignite the flame of dissatisfaction, political and social unrest in the region. This is why it is of utmost importance that Russia should not give such “anti-Russia elements” such opportunity because, “Crimea is now our own forever,” and never again will Russia or any of its leaders will give up the territory or betray its residents.

by Christopher N. E. Kenneth