The Washington Post – an inveterate keystone of US foreign policy propaganda – made a surprising admission recently. The people of Crimea – allegedly “annexed” by the Russian Federation – are vastly satisfied under Moscow’s governance.
The Washington Post article titled, “Six years and $20 billion in Russian investment later, Crimeans are happy with Russian annexation,” attempts in every way to misrepresent, and deny the cause and obvious implications of the polling data presented – but still admits:
…the annexation was popular, especially among Crimea’s large population of older ethnic Russians. More than five years later, and billions of rubles of investment later, it remains popular.
The polling data was collected by the Levada Center – which the Washington Post calls, “Russia’s most reliable polling company.” The Washington Post conveniently omits that the Levada Center has been funded by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and regularly works with the Western media to generate data to support Washington and London’s various anti-Russian narratives – which is likely why the Washington Post determines it is so “reliable.”
Yet even this US-funded front had to admit that from 2014 when Crimea rejoined Russia, up to and including today, the peninsula’s Russian administration was and remains highly popular.
The Washington Post even had to admit that among Crimea’s Tatar minority support for Crimea’s rejoining of Russia actually rose since 2014.
The Washington Post would have to admit (emphasis added):
Support for joining Russia remains very high (86 percent in 2014 and 82 percent in 2019) — and is especially high among ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. A key change since 2014 has been a significant increase in support by Tatars, a Turkic Muslim population that makes up about 12 percent of the Crimean population. In 2014, only 39 percent of this group viewed joining Russia as a positive move, but this figure rose to 58 percent in 2019.
Crimea’s Tatars have been the focus of immense efforts both by Washington and its partners in Kiev to create a viable opposition to destabilize the peninsula and undermine Russia’s presence there.
Apparently this ploy has mostly failed.
Russophobic Foreign Policy Out of Sync With Reality
The Washington Post finally admits that despite overwhelming support both in 2014 and up to and including today for Crimea’s return to Russia – the West is still outraged over the development.
The Post notes:
Crimea’s annexation remains an outrage to most Euro-Atlantic states, though sentiments are clearly different on the political far right. But even Russia’s fiercest critics recognize, though they rarely express it publicly, that Crimea is not going to return to Ukraine any time soon.
But if the people of Crimea wanted to return the peninsula to Russian administration and were overwhelmingly happy then and now having done so – what is the source of outrage among most “Euro-Atlantic states” – states that allege their foreign policy is underpinned by concern for democracy and human rights?
Here one sees another shingle come loose and blow away from the roof of propaganda that shelters and hides the West’s true agenda and motivations. These “Euro-Atlantic states” never cared what the people of Crimea thought, or cared about the fate and future of Ukraine or Russia in terms of what was best for the people actually living there – and instead cared only about how developments in both states would benefit themselves.
This includes their highly determined attempts to maintain their unipolar “international order” – an order they created and one that benefits they and they alone – and an order maintained at the cost of the rest of the world subjected to it.
The fact that the West still protests Crimea’s rejoining Russia despite the actual people of Crimea choosing to do so and – 6 years on – still being vastly satisfied with their decision – says much about the West’s actual commitment to the principles of democracy and self-determination versus its use of such principles to hide its self-serving agenda.
The people of Crimea have escaped the destabilized, chaotic nightmare the US and its NATO allies turned neighboring Ukraine into – a nightmare predicated on bringing Ukraine “democracy” and “human rights” and putting it on course to join the disintegrating European Union and drawing it in closer to the increasingly antiquated and impotent NATO military alliance.
The tale of post-Euromaidan Ukraine and Crimea which escaped it – is a cautionary one – warning nations of what actually becomes of those who fall into the orbit of Washington, London, and Brussels, and the true benefits of genuine self-determination beyond that orbit.
Ukraine will continue to be a warning of bending to the West and investing in its tired “international order” – while neighboring Crimea will continue to be showcase for the merits of emerging multipolarism – and increasingly so to the point where even prominent sources of Western propaganda like the Washington Post must admit as much – however obliquely.
Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.