SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine, (Reuters) – Waving the Russian flag and chanting “Russia! Russia!”, protesters in Crimea have become the last major bastion of resistance to Ukraine’s new rulers.
President Viktor Yanukovich’s overthrow on Saturday has been accepted across the vast country, even in his power base in the Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine.
But Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula attached to the rest of Ukraine by just a narrow strip of land, is alone so far in challenging the new order.
As the only Ukrainian region with an ethnic Russian majority, and a home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the strategically important territory is also now the focus of a battle between Russia and the West over the future of Ukraine.
Tensions are mounting in the regional capital Simferopol as separatists try to exploit the chaos after the changes in Kiev to press demands for Russia to reclaim the territory which Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev gifted in 1954 to the Soviet Ukraine. Washington has warned Moscow not to send in tanks, an action that could result in yet another war in a region that has been fought over – and changed hands – many times in history.
But President Vladimir Putin flexed his muscles on Wednesday, putting military forces in western Russia on alert and saying Russia was acting to ensure the security of its facilities in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
The view from separatists in Crimea is that there has never been a better time to appeal to Moscow for help than now.
“I crossed two oceans and four seas with the Russian navy, and now I have fascists telling me what to do?” said Daniyel Romanenko, a 73-year-old retired officer, portraying the new Ukrainian leadership in the worst possible terms in a country that was overrun by Nazi Germany in World War Two.
“We should be given the choice to unite at last with Russia,” he said at a rally in Sevastopol, wearing his uniform.
Crimea’s balmy climate once made it a favoured holiday destination for Russian tsars and Soviet leaders. Its vineyards, orchards and the “green riviera” along its southern coast make for some stunning scenery. But even before the national parliament in Kiev stripped Yanukovich of his powers on Saturday, after three months of protests by largely pro-Europe demonstrators, there were rallies in Crimea by worried ethnic Russians.
Although he was little loved in Moscow, Russia had backed Yanukovich and his departure reduces the Kremlin’s ability to influence Ukraine.
For the more than 1 million ethnic Russians in Crimea, it increases uncertainty, and many want protection by Mother Russia, with whom cultural and religious ties are strong.
Some are especially enraged that the new leaders have rolled back laws to strengthen the importance of using the Ukrainian language, which is not the mother tongue for many in Crimea, and refuse to recognise them as Ukraine’s leaders.
“We don’t have a legitimate government so we have to look out for ourselves,” said Vladimir, a 37-year-old businessman. Taking matters into their own hands, separatist-minded protesters at a rally on Sunday voted to appoint Alexei Chaly, a Russian businessman, as the de facto mayor of Sevastopol in a show of hands. The next day the presence of a large crowd on the streets outside a meeting of the city administration ensured his appointment could not be blocked.
The chaotic events, followed by more protests on Tuesday and Wednesday, and more calls for secession, underline how difficult the transition of power may be in Ukraine, especially in Crimea.
“BANANA REPUBLIC”
Rumours that protesters from Kiev’s barricades might be on their way from the capital to put down separatist moves have prompted some Crimeans to create informal self-defence units.
