AW: NP: European Westsplaining

[Hübschräuber]

------ Original Message -------
Martin Dietze <mdietze at gmail.com> schrieb am Donnerstag, 7. April 2022 um 12:45:

> It is also about Eastern European people's
> right to freely choose their preferred way of life and of course also
> alliances.

This goes for the people of Crimea as well, I assume?

"By May 1992, 250,000 of Crimea’s roughly two million mostly Russian people had signed a petition asking for a referendum on independence – enough to trigger a vote under Ukrainian law. On May 5 that year, Crimea’s parliament voted 118 to 28 to secede from Ukraine. But the Kiev government prevented a referendum from taking place."

https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

As for the so-called annexation of Crimea, and according to noted Russian propaganda outlet PEW Research:

"Crimean residents are almost universally positive toward Russia. At least nine-in-ten have confidence in Putin (93%) and say Russia is playing a positive role in Crimea (92%). Confidence in Obama is almost negligible at 4%, and just 2% think the U.S. is having a good influence on the way things are going on the Crimean peninsula."

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/05/08/despite-concerns-about-governance-ukrainians-want-to-remain-one-country/

So, did the people of Crimea also have the "right to freely choose their preferred way of life and of course also
alliances"? What do you think, Martin?

As a bonus:

"Q. Could the current war have been avoided?

A. Very much so. President Volodymyr Zelensky was elected largely on a promise to seek peace, which he courageously did in 2019. But political rivals and hard-Right militias both opposed him.

On a visit to soldiers on the front line, he told one Rightist who lectured him: ‘You can’t issue me ultimatums. I’m the president of this country. I am 42 years old. I’m no sucker. I came here to tell you to move your weapons away from the front line.’ But in the end, Mr Zelensky gave in to the pressure, and the peace deal withered away."

https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

The Grayzone reported the same. As you can read the original sources - what is your assessment of these reports, Martin?