CRIMEA HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Crimea became part of Ukraine only in 1954 (60 years ago). Crimea was historically part of Russia, and Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine in a gesture that mystified some people. Crimea hasn't always been part of Ukraine. Here's a quick rundown of what's happened in the region since the Ottoman Empire used the peninsula as a hub for slave trade.

The Black Sea and the coastal areas have played an important role in the history of eastern Europe and western Asia. Byzantium, Kiev Rus, the Golden Horde, Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy all tried to control parts of its area at various periods in history. From 1475 for three hundred years the Ottoman Turks controlled the Black Sea and the lands surrounding it. In 1783 Catherine annexed the Crimean peninsula, with its Muslim Tatar population, to the Russian Empire after a major Russian military victory over the Ottomans. The effect on the Ottoman Empire was significant. It lost its Tatar military forces when traditional means of securing recruits for the army had broken down; lost its secure northern frontier - the route to Istanbul itself was now open; it lost, for the first time, a Muslim province.

• 1783: Russia annexed Crimea
• 1853: The Crimean War began, lasting three years. Russia lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain and Sardinia. Crimea remained part of Russia.
• 1917: Crimea briefly became a sovereign state before becoming a base for the White Army of anti-Bolshevik forces in the Russian War.
• 1921: The peninsula, now called the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, became part of the Soviet Union.
• 1942: Nazi Germany ttok control of Crimea.
• 1944: Joseph Stalin forcibly deported all Muslim Tatars, a group of 300,000 who had lived on the peninsula for centuries, due to members' alleged cooperation with Germany during World War II. Many returned to Crimea in the 1980s and 1990s.
• 1945: After World War II, the autonomous Soviet republic was dissolved and Crimea became a province of the Soviet Union called the Crimean Oblast.
• 1954: Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine. It's often reported that it was a gesture of goodwill from Khrushchev  to mark the 300th anniversary of Ukraine's merger with tasrist Russia and his personal ties to Ukraine (Krushchev had Ukrainian roots).
• 1991: The Soviet Union collapsed. Many expected President Boris Yeltsin, the new president of the Russian Federation, to take Crimea for Russia. But he didn't bring it up during negotaions with Ukraine.
• 1997: Ukraine and Russia signed a treaty that allowed Russia to keep its fleet in Savastopol. The agreement's since been extended, so the fleet is set to remain there until at least 2042.

Russia to be sure is not going to back down from Crimea, irrespective of Western pressure. This means that if the U.S. and the European Union and the International Community at large want to find any resolution here, they're going to have to find a way to come to terms with that. Now that the Crimean parliament has voted, clearly with Russian assent, and a referendum will take place on 16 March, expect a further militarization of the peninsula by the Russians.

The  U.S., the European Union and the International Community at large should accept the situation in Crimea and the results of the referendum to get the Russians to honour the territorial integrity of the rest of Ukraine (It should be noted that Russian armed forces are not involved in any kind of military activity along the Ukrainian border threatening Ukraine’s security)  and recognize the new government in Kiev (that will be the most difficult for Moscow).

Please consider the way the interim government in Kiev was chosen:

On 26 February, standing before a crowd of tens of thousands in Independence Square in Kiev, the center of the three-month civic uprising that ousted President Viktor F. Yanukovych, the lawmakers temporarily controlling Ukraine announced an interim government . The public presentation of Mr. Yatsenyuk, who now serves as acting prime minister, and more than 20 other proposed cabinet members, was a frenetic effort by establishment politicians to win the backing of the street protesters, whose persistence in the face of the deaths of more than 80 people in clashes with the police ultimately forced Mr. Yanukovych from power.

As the names of the proposed ministers were read from a stage — with flowers and candles blanketing the square in memory of the dead — it became clear just how completely the ordinary people on the street had seized control of the direction of Ukraine. Desperate for the crowd’s legitimacy, officials felt compelled to present the slate on stage in the square before putting it up for a vote by Parliament. The reaction from the crowd was decidedly mixed. Jeers and whistles greeted some established politicians, and cheers for some figures with no government experience chosen because of their role in the uprising. But with Ukraine hurtling toward an economic catastrophe, and no time for protracted negotiations, the gesture of deference to the crowd seemed sufficient to move the process forward.

Key figures:

• Mr. Yatsenyuk was appointed Prime Minister. He is an ally of the former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko (. Ms. Tymoshenko was released from a prison hospital and is expected to run for president in the May elections. Mr. Yatsenyuk is largely viewed as an able technician with a firm grasp of economic policy and foreign affairs. He has served as speaker of Parliament, foreign minister, economics minister and acting head of the central bank. Mr. Yatsenyuk was one of three opposition leaders in Parliament who were among the chief organizers of the street demonstrations. Another, the former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who leads a party called the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform, has already announced his candidacy for president. The third, Oleg Tyagnybok, is the leader of the nationalist Svoboda party, which is popular in Western Ukraine but has limited support elsewhere.
• Olga Bogomolets, a doctor, singer and activist became deputy prime minister for humanitarian affairs
• Tatyana Chornovil, an activist and journalist, was appointed to lead Ukraine’s anticorruption bureau.
• Oleksandr V. Turchynov as new speaker of Parliament has been authorized to carry out the duties of president, effectively putting him in charge of the country.
• Dmitro Bulatov, the leader of a group called AutoMaidan was designated as Minister of Youth and Sport
• Eugene Nyschuk, an actor who has served as M.C. from the stage in Independence Square throughout the protests was selected as Culture Minister.
• Andrey Dashchitsa, a veteran Ukrainian diplomat, was chosen as Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Andrey Parubiy, a member of Parliament and leader of the protest movement, was chosen as the Head of the National Security Council
• Arsen Avakov, who was already working as Interior Minister, was chosen to remain in that post.

 Officials in Parliament, led by Mr. Turchynov, had struggled to reach a deal on the interim government in part because of the demands by civic activists that it include a number of people who did not have previous experience in public life. The crowd, however, was divided even on these choices, underscoring the near-impossible challenge faced by officials hoping to win the approval of the street.