Monday 25 March 2019

POLL: Crimeans Still Strongly Prefer Russia Over Ukraine

March 22, 2019
by Eric Zuesse for The Saker Blog
POLL: Crimeans Still Strongly Prefer Russia Over Ukraine
Whereas the U.S. regime and its allies demand that Crimea be returned to being ruled by the Ukrainian Government, as it had been during 1954-2014 (but Russian at all other times), all polls, ever since at least 2013 (when the U.S. Government started polling this) have shown that approximately 90% of Crimeans want to be ruled instead by Russia’s Government, and the latest of these polls was issued on March 14th.
Here is the opening of the Tass report on this poll:
Overwhelming majority of Crimeans would again vote to reunite with Russia, says poll
According to the poll, Crimea’s confidence in President Vladimir Putin’s is higher than in the rest of Russia, viewed positively by 90% of the respondents
SIMFEROPOL, Th. 14 March 2019 /TASS/. Crimea remains positive about the peninsula’s reunification with Russia and if the referendum was held today, 89% of Crimeans would support joining Russia, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center announced in Simferopol the results of a poll on Thursday.
“The attitude towards Crimea’s reunification with Russia remains decisively positive. Eighty-nine percent would cast their votes to reunite with Russia if a referendum were held next Sunday, and 93% view the reunification in a positive light. The level of negative attitudes and support for an Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of Ukraine are minimal (3% each), the data says. The survey also noted that across Russia, 85% of respondents support the reunification. …
Here were the prior polling results:
U.S. National Public Radio Propagandizes Against Putin, For Regime-Change In Russia
By Eric Zuesse, 27 December 2014
(1) The March 16th, 2014, referendum of the voters in Crimea, produced a 96% vote to secede.
(2) Gallup polled 500 Crimeans during May 16-30 in 2013, and found that only 15% considered themselves “Ukrainian.” 24% considered themselves “Crimean.” But 40% considered themselves “Russian.” Even before Obama’s February 2014 coup which overthrew the Ukrainian President whom 80% of Crimeans had voted for, the Crimean people overwhelmingly wanted to secede from Ukraine – and, especially now they did, right after the President for whom they had overwhelmingly voted, Viktor Yanukovych, had been overthrown in this extremely bloody coup. Furthermore, in April 2014, Gallup again polled Crimea, and they found that 71.3% of Crimeans viewed as “Mostly positive” the role of Russia there, and 4.0% viewed it as “Mostly negative”; by contrast, only 2.8% viewed the role of the United States there as “Mostly positive,” and a whopping 76.2% viewed it as “Mostly negative.” During the intervening year, Crimeans’ favorability toward America had plunged down to 2.8%, from its year-earlier 6%. Clearly, what Obama had done in Ukraine (his violent coup in Kiev) had antagonized the Crimeans. And, as if this weren’t enough, the 2014 poll provided yet more evidence: “The 500 people that were sampled in Crimea were asked [and this is crucial] ‘Please tell me if you agree or disagree: The results of the referendum on Crimea’s status [whether to rejoin Russia] reflect the views of most people here.’ 82.8% said ‘Agree.’ 6.7% said ‘Disagree.’” In the hearts of the local residents, Crimea was still Russian territory, after an involuntary hiatus of 60 years; and so the Russian Government accepted them back again, into Russia – this was not as [NPR’s] Corey Flintoff droned, “Russia’s seizure of Crimea.” It was Russia’s protection of them from the invasion of Ukraine by the United States in a bloody coup.
The U.S. regime nonetheless won overwhelming support at the U.N. to force Crimeans to revert to rule by Ukraine’s Government:
27 MARCH 2014
GENERAL ASSEMBLY PLENARY
General Assembly Adopts Resolution Calling upon States Not to Recognize Changes in Status of Crimea Region
Sixty-eighth General Assembly
100 Votes in Favour, 11 against, 58 Abstentions for Text on Ukraine
However, Crimeans continued to reject the U.S. regime’s position, by around 90%:
The Crimean conundrum
O’LOUGHLIN THE JOHN and BY GERARD TOAL 3 March 2015  [NOTE: This site is anti-Russian. By “conundrum” is meant that these findings aren’t what America’s rulers want.]
One year since Crimea was annexed by Russia, polling reveals that (with the notable exception of the Tatars) the new order enjoys legitimacy among the population. …
We thus decided to conduct an equivalent survey … conducted in Russian between 12 and 25 December 2014. …
63% declared their nationality as Russian, 21% as Ukrainian and 8.5% as Tatar. …
First, the great majority of the sample (85%) declared that Crimea was ‘moving in the right direction.’This finding is in contrast to previous polling conducted in Crimea. …
When asked if the annexation was a ‘ wrong decision,’ ‘generally a right decision’ or ‘absolutely the right decision’, 84% of this combined group picked the third option. …
These responses indicate that had a legal referendum that met international standards been permitted in Crimea (as Scotland held in September 2014), there would likely have been a majority in favour of leaving Ukraine and joining Russia. …
The strong majority (85%) of the population of Crimea do not perceive themselves as European. … In Crimea, 89% of respondents agreed that Crimea belonged to the ‘Russian world.’
And again:
The Annexation of Crimea to Russia. Opinion Poll
February 12, 2015. by Konstantin Kosaretsky. [10 Feb. in Oriental Review as “German Sociologists on Crimea’s Choice”] …
The attitudes of Crimeans were studied in January 2015. …
Do you endorse Russia’s annexation of Crimea?” 82% of the respondents answered “yes, definitely,” and another 11% – “yes, for the most part.” Only 2% gave an unambiguously negative response, and another 2% offered a relatively negative assessment. Three percent did not specify their position. …
However, the U.S. regime remained adamant against democracy in Crimea:
One Year Later – Russia’s Occupation of Crimea
Press Statement
Jen Psaki
Department Spokesperson
Washington, DC
March 16, 2015
On this one year anniversary of the sham “referendum” in Crimea, held in clear violation of Ukrainian law and the Ukrainian constitution, the United States reiterates its condemnation of a vote that was not voluntary, transparent, or democratic. We do not, nor will we, recognize Russia’s attempted annexation and call on President Putin to end his country’s occupation of Crimea.
But some Americans were beginning to recognize that the U.S. Government are fascist con-artists who want to rule even in Crimea, which is terrified of Washington:
One Year After Russia Annexed Crimea, Locals Prefer Moscow To Kiev
20 March 2015, Kenneth Rapoza
The U.S and European Union may want to save Crimeans from themselves. But the Crimeans are happy right where they are. One year after the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea, poll after poll shows that the locals there — be they Ukrainians, ethnic Russians or Tatars are mostly all in agreement: life with Russia is better than life with Ukraine.
Little has changed over the last 12 months.  Despite huge efforts on the part of Kiev, Brussels, Washington and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the bulk of humanity living on the Black Sea peninsula believe the referendum to secede from Ukraine was legit.  At some point, the West will have to recognize Crimea’s right to self rule.
Here are some of the things that Crimeans were terrified of that the U.S. regime armed, backed, and patronized: this, and this.
America’s proxy ‘freedom fighters’ in Ukraine are like America’s proxy ‘freedom fighters’ in Syria, except Christian instead of Muslim. Of course, Hitler’s also were, but that regime was far more honest about its psychopathy than is the U.S. regime, which spouts about ‘democracy,’ ‘human rights,’ etc., instead of about “Lebensraum.”
—————

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

No comments: