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Is Crimea In Russia? Internet Companies Have Different Answers

Posted by timothy on from the now-that-depends-who-you-gentleman-are-with dept.

judgecorp (778838) writes "Three weeks after Russia asserted that Crimea is part of its territory, the social networks have a problem: how to categories their users from the region? Facebook and the largest Russian social network, Vkontakte, still say Crimeans are located in Ukraine, while other Russian social networks say they are Russians. Meanwhile, on Wikipedia, an edit war has resulted in Crimea being part of Russia, but shaded a different colour to signify the territory is disputed. Search engine Yandex is trying to cover both angles: its maps service gives a different answer, depending on which location you send your query from."

8 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Ukraine's borders were changed by use of force by mi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Russia annexed the province by use of force. Any and all counter-arguments like "but they voted" are meaningless: first, the voting took place under the "gentle" guidance of Russian military. Then, even if you think, it is legitimate for a referendum on whether to join a foreign power to take place while under occupation by that same power, the vote was fraudulent. For example, in Sevastopol the number of people showing up for vote was 123% of the eligible voters.

    And, finally, even without the above two arguments, would Russia accept a referendum by residents of the Kuril Island, for example, on breaking away from the Motherland and joining Japan? Would the US accept the results of Southern California (or Southern Texas) voting to break away and join Mexico?

    Neither would, of course. The Crimean referendum is a joke. A sad joke perpetrated by Russia-the-bully on Ukraine weakened by internal strife and years of mismanagement (to which Russia heartily contributed just for this purpose, BTW).

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Ukraine's borders were changed by use of force by jbolden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Russia handled this badly in a lot of ways. But in the end what we know is that once Russia offered, if there were a fair and free referendum the Crimean people would like to join Russia and leave Ukraine. I see no reason that people should be trapped in a country they don't want to be a part of. I believe self determination gives people, not just states, the right to change borders.

      And yes I think if Texas voted to join Mexico the USA would accept it. I can't imagine the USA holding millions of people and hundreds of square miles of territory by force. That would completely undermine everything else about American democracy. Americans like to have a government by the people for the people. A government imposed is not either.

    2. Re:Ukraine's borders were changed by use of force by rolfwind · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You apparently never heard of the American Civil War then.

    3. Re:Ukraine's borders were changed by use of force by mi · · Score: 4, Informative

      Kosovo comes to mind

      Kosovo did not vote to join the US — nor any of the others, whose military was occupying the land.

      Finally, would the British Empire accept a referendum by residents of it's colonies in the new world

      As a matter of fact, India left the British empire without war. Look up Ghandi...

      Those sorts of things are not achieved by throwing roses at your enemies.

      We'll never know, what roses (or stones) Crimeans would've thrown at Kyiv on their own — had it been so clear-cut, Russia would not have had the need to occupy the peninsula before the referendum — nor would they have had the need to shut off Ukrainian TV rebroadcasts over it, replacing them with Putin's lying propaganda.

      What we do know is that the fraudulent vote took place under the guns of the occupiers.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    4. Re:Ukraine's borders were changed by use of force by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It was a war over Federal vs. State control

      Yeah, control of slavery.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  2. Re:is this seriously by mi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    in due time all websites will list it under Russia.

    Only the Russian websites will do so. The rest will list it as "Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation". Unwieldy, perhaps, but reflecting the truth.

    Or, as they keep saying about Jerusalem, it will go something like this: "Annexed by Russia in a move not recognized internationally."

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  3. Re:This by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Which is rather like claiming the residents of South Tyrol are Austrian, and perhaps more apropos to the Crimean situation, stating Austria is German.

    How precisely Russia threatening to swallow up any of its neighbors' territory because ethnic Russians live there differs from Anschluss escapes.me.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  4. Re:is this seriously by T.E.D. · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The current government there is a party that got less than 10% of the vote in the last Crimean regional election, and was essentially appointed by Putin after his troops moved in. So it owes its entire political existence not to local support, but to the support of some guys in Moscow.

    Its possible that if you had a completely free plebiscite on the issue, without Russian troops and "militias" backed by them standing around with guns, the people of Crimea would have willingly voted for something similar to what they have now. Its also possible they wouldn't. We'll never know now, because it doesn't look like there will be anything like a free election there again for quite a while.