Ask crimean citizens what they think...that's all that matters

I liked the first guy saying for example "the salaries didn't increase as much as expected"..."there are only Russian tourists" ... and my favorite "they are not in a war zone but isolated"!!! . So he is presenting positive things as if they are negative, He could also have said "the bridge is not as pretty as it could it been", "the new airport is not as big as..." and so on. Ridiculous way to make a case.

Pro: guaranteed access to Sevastopol naval base Cons: being condemned and sanctioned like mad.

I have a problem when Issues like this are discussed and people who live in the place of subject matter are not involved, I think discussions become far from reality.

What did Ukraine gain siding with America nothing.

I have to say. Cremia was part of Russia. but if Ukranian did not go for a coop Russia would not get here. again I see how Russia improved the lives of people living in Creamia and building a bridge and new power plants. its clear Russia wants best for the Creamians people and Ukraine will have problems with Russia. if they want to be part of Eu.

Crimea's power production has gone from 160MW under Ukraine to over 1120MW right now and in the next one year the power produced will be over 2000M. Crimea has a new bridge linking to Russia, a new airport, new roads, new kindergartens, new schools. This is what the people of Crimea chose. If Russia did truly annex Crimea how come Putin is greeted with love in Crimea while Poroshenko was spat at and literally chased away?

What is missing in the mainstreammedia they don't talk about the ridiculous far right in Ukraine

Annex: The nicer way of saying “look at me, I’m the captain now”

Mark sleboda made these other two look foolish. Even if nothing happened in Crimea. There will still be other reasons to give those sanctions.

What has Russia gained? they gained Crimea. duh. and it's not annexed, but "reunited"

As a Russian, and a student of international law, I can say with confidence that there was nothing legal about the annexation of Crimea. However, the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of Crimeans do want to be part of Russia and have wanted this for quite some time now. At the end of the day, whether it was done correctly or not, isn't the fact that the population's will was realized important?

Doesn't cutting off water go to prove Kiev never gave a sh** about Crimea? made the right choice leaving than staying in a toxic relationship

Mark Sleboda makes these two guests look totally outdated in the world of now where democracy rules: first the Russian military has been in Crimea for 500 years and secondly before the Maidan time Russia was paying the bill to keep their military in Crimea plus Crimea was Russia till a while ago( 1954). Now where will the Russian MP run to when Kiev Finally goes back to Russia in the soon to come period?. Putin took Crimea back with Crimeans hence Story closed forever!.

It didn't annex Crimea. Crimea voluntarily joined. They did referendum and more than 95% voted to be with their mother land. That is not surprising, since the over whelming majority of Crimeans are ethnic Russians. Don't distort truth Al Jazeera.

Imagine people supporting 🇮🇱 but hostile against 🇷🇺

It would be interesting to have round 2 of this panel one month after Ukraine's invasion by Russia.

Crimea is Russia and Russia is grate 👍👍👍

Russia didnt start it. Russia ended it. Good try though..

Professor Oleksiy Haran - refused to talk about economic situation in Crimea- because their economy and infrastructure is better that the whole Ukraine.

Что Россия получила от аннексии Крыма? Россия получила независимость от доллара и Англосаксов! А вы все кто под пяткой англосаксов молчите!

If crimea pipo are not complaining then why bother? Let them enjoy the re- unification wiz Russia

Crimea has always belong to Russia good that they got it back.

Yes Russian is back again

Canadian flags in an ukrainian revolution

The Smartest President on earth 😁

Respect from Romania! Dear Al Jazeera, please ask Ukraina if and when are they going to return lands given to them by the Tzars and Stalin from Poland, Moldavia/Romania and Hungary? Cause the Russians took almost all theirs back. Almost...

Watching from Bangladesh 🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩

The important thing here is that the crimean people want´s to be russian.Crimea was anexed to Ucraine, and the people never accepted that. That´s the true. Crimea was anexed to Ucraine. And this situation now is reversed.

It's not like Russia was looking for a gain, but to ensure no blood will be spilled by Russian people living there. The more important question should be what Crimeans gained from joining Russia. - New airports, Hospitals, Schools, Roads, infrastructure and safety for their families not to be murdered or burned alive by ukranian Nazis ... just to begin with

we all saw the videos. Russia did it to get more sea access.

important strategic defense position.

Honestly speaking Crimea has been part of Russia for around 200 years... not as a colony but as part of the nation... Crimea is more Russian than Ukrainian, even though Ukraine and Russia are very close. Both culturally, ethnically, and economically more or less one, most people from both countries actually have close ties with each other, they love and get along with each other even though their governments don't... Ukraine held a referendum in 2014 and voted to be a part of Russia... When the former Yugoslavia held a referendum no one said it was illegal or unconstitutional, when South Sudan held a referendum and voted to separate from Sudan everyone celebrated.... But when Crimea votes to reunite with their Russian brothers the west (which likes to claim it has the voice of the world) complains and calls it illegal.... The same international laws should apply to all countries, both allies and foes of the west alike.

The free pass way to the open World through the Mediterranean Sea!.

Привет из Симферополя!Как я могу аннексировать свой дом?

Russia is less 'intimidated' (in Black Sea region) with Crimea under its control.

Krim ar russian and saved from NATO,USA and fascism. The world shoud thank Russia for that!

Unification not annexed,Aljazeera get this corrected.

In the real world, law and order is to stop the weak to rebel, strong man set and change the law as they see fit.

A naval base & territory 🤷‍♂️

6:10 no russian troops? I thought there was a whole russian naval fleet there. What about the referendum? Nowadays i guess referendum means annexation?

Where is the guest from... uh... CRIMEA? We know what the Kiev position is. I enjoyed the part where as Kiev Klown 1 is saying "It was not a coup!" we see images of Kiev burning as the mobs were taking part in the coup.

This is 2 years old, things have changed.

Propaganda at its best

The maidan leaders assured US and NATO to provide Crimea to establish naval base there. Crimea population are mostly Russian.

A huge new source of income for the Russian state for one.

Political capital, both foreign and domestic, and valuable territory. That is really all there is to it.

Crimeans love it, so what is the problem? However, Ukraine has lost because Russia could not invade Ukraine in 2014.

Welcome home, Crimea!

I like how these discussions occur. In the U.S. news, It becomes a shouting match and personal attacks as soon as there are any disagreements.

Nikita Khrushchev never avoided Crimean delegates of citizens visiting him in office in Moscow after 1954. After the fall of communism, his children were subject to lynch mobs. He repeated to delegates that contrary to popular belief , that he never gifted Crimea from Russia to Ukraine. Nikita told them russia still owns Crimea. He also said he never redrew a map of Crimea to give Crimea to Ukraine::: He told Crimeans he did transfer salary - sources and municipal funds of Crimean city workers and town hall employees to Kyiv treasury, as this does not raise eyebrows among his opposing lawmakers (MP or members of Polit-bureau). He had met a few delegations of common Crimeans and officials from Crimea, while he was General Secretary of the Soviet Union. He told pretty all of the groups of delegates, every time that, contrary to popular belief, that he, Nikita Khrushchev, never gave or gifted Crimea from Russia - maps to Ukraine. He says he had once written an office memo one time at night when he came to the office. Next, the same year, Khrushchev, says he transferred salary funds and sources of salary and Crimea municipal expense funds from Russia treasury to Ukraine treasury. He told them that |Soviet were hidden from the public, and if he could reassure them, he cannot show them what the law say at the time. Khrushchev admitted that this may create confusion (or may not create confusion) in future if and when the Soviet Union broke up into individual nations. Khrushchev made it clear he never transferred the land-mass of Crimea from Russia to another country such as Ukraine. He transferred municipal expenses. It's like saying, the salaries of municipal town hall workers of Jackson, Mississippi will be coming from the government of Canada. Usually foreign workers of a neighboring country are not paid salaries by another country. But it can happen. It doesn't mean Canada owns Jackson, MS.

Nobody from Crimea qualifies to give an assessment after five years?

Putin not stupid he knew the porbability of US ships docked in the black sea was highly likely at the time. when he took this decision to annex Crimea. Also Russians saved a lot of lives in Crimea, because 90% of them spoke Russian and did not support the Ukrainian forces. So they would of been a target just like east ukraine, Russian speakers.

From the presenters opening points am not sure what what narrative is being spewed here. All I see is nothing but little bits of half truths and the usual msm line. Al Jazeera is confused Ps Mark is the only person here who seems to know what he's saying dropping facts and data.

Russia wants the gas reserves of crimea. Ukraine could've joined EU and developed those resources and be russia's competitor and challenge putin's stranglehold on european gas supply.

Ukraina Country And People Is Good Don't Bother They Life, They Freedom And Independence Country, ...... God Bless All, ...... Bravo.

Hold on , it started when president turned down EU deal?

I mean, if you want to recapture the satellite states, you have to capture them in order, East to West. Of course he took Crimea first.

Fake news AJ. Crimea is Russia since 1783.

No problem with that because it was their choice to join Russia no big deal

Funny is that they are talking woth people from Kiev and Moscow but NOT FROM CRIMEA. Get to Crimea, talk to people!

If the Crimea was this important Yeltsin should have kept it in 1992. Twenty years plus later by force no. I do think though the Crimean are likely happier under Russian rule than Ukrainian.

Crimea now has a drought.

I hope that California gets annexed by Canada, Lolz.

Crimea, mostly.

256 miles of oil and gas rights.

What has it gained? Sanctions

I really miss Sleboda on Crosstalk and The Duran.

Russia should have left Crimea to the mercy of the Right Sector. Ukraine is a joke if they think that.

If Putin didn't intervene, NATO & US would haven taken over Crimea & svestapol sea port & would been camping in Russia's back garden. Blame NATO/us for Crimea crisis not Russia!

Don’t understand I have something I gave it to you and then decide to take it I see nothing wrong with that. I give it to you because we had good relationship then but now i feel the relationship is not going as expected I’ll take it, it not as if u buy it from me. People does it most of the time.

Historical picture of ownership == Two countries want Crimea today, currently with a predominantly Russian population : 2000 BC to 1 AD:: Crimea was ruled most likely by various Greek powerful kingdoms. Crimea from 1 AD to 800 AD == Crimea was most likely ruled by the Roman empire, and subsequent eastern Holy Roman empire of Roman era . 800 AD to 1000 AD: Crimea was ruled by various Slavic tribes, such as Magyars, Bulgarians and BeloRusian Slavic tribes. 1000 AD to 1783: Crimea was ruled by Islamic militants led by the Crimea - Khanate (Khan of Crimea), and had been a protectorate of the Ottoman empire who protected Crimean Tatars. There were attacks on Turkish militants from within Crimea and neighboring kingdoms by hordes of Cossack warriors on horseback. Some Tatars, considered to be militant b rothers, were re-settled into Crimea by the Ottoman empire. 1783 AD to 1791 AD == Crimea was ruled directly by generals of Imperial Russia till population count in 1791. This was after liberation Ottoman rule by Queen Catherine the Great of the Russian Federation. Crimea from 1791 to 1992 or so: Crimea was part of the Russian Federation, though not directly ruled by the Romanov dynasty, supposedly, until Khrushchev made some secret legislations. Queen Catherine the Great, an ethnic German and Queen of Russian Empire made Crimea a part of Russia as the population of Crimea mostly wanted to be part of Russia as per a population count of 1791 or 1783, from 1954, to 1992, with salaries of Town Hall employees coming from Kyiv. 1992 to 2014: Crimea was an autonomous province within the Unified Russia. 1954 to 2014: Lower local salaries than USA salaries of employees of Crimea mayors and town hall employees and municipal employees came from Kyiv instead of Moscow. Khrushchev told visiting Crimeans in his Moscow office that he was innocent and that he never gifted Crimea from Russia to Ukraine, contrary to public opinion: He says he requested Soviet MP's or arm - twisted their MP's (Members of Polit-bureau =Soviet lawmakers) to change salary source of town hall employees of tiny Crimea from Moscow funds to Kyiv funds / coffers. It wasn't a gift, he said. Former U.S. ambassador to UNO Nicki Nimrata Haley had asked Russia to vacate Crimea, as she thinks that it previously belonged to Turks and Tatars from 1000 AD to 1783. In response, Russian ambassador, Mr BaldMan, may have asked Mrs. Haley & her husband to vacate the western hemisphere, as it belonged to native Americans for 783 years, he sez. Who is right is anybody's guess, in this small Russian majority province of Crimea.

Russia is lost

The people of Crimea voted to be part of Russia, as we know. I am originally from Batesville somewhere in the deep south. Today I am away. In 1783, Queen Catherine the great decided to liberate some Turkish ruled kingdoms that were ruled for a number of centuries by the Ottomaan empire. Few American lawmakers with no knowledge of the old world seem to oppose Russians for no reason. The modern day American people / lawmaker is naive, and think just like the native American dead leaders, such as Pocahoncho and Sitting Bull and Pontiac. . Few American lawmakers are upset with Queen Catherine the great as she created a country called Ukraine in 1783 in the villages surrounding Kiev, while putting predominantly Russian speaking Crimea into Russia in 1783. I think she did the right thing by putting Crimea in Russia. A couple of lawmakers in the western hemisphere may try stunts such as by complaining to native American ex - leader Pontiac about Queen Catherine's correct decision to put predominantly Russian speaking tiny Crimea in Russia in 1783. A drunk Khrushchev wrote an office memo in 1954 late one night after closing his office in Moscow, while all alone, with perhaps one bodyguard saying, "Crimea is no longer part of Ukraine", just before he passed out, supposedly, as mentioned in few news clips on the Internet.. I know all this without ever visiting that country.

crimmia belonged to Russia before anyways here, let me teach you history. On 19 February 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issued a decree transferring the Crimean Oblast from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian SSR.

😲

like report, do not like empty discussion

lol why is the only american guy the pro russian guy

If Russia had been admitted into both the EU and NATO, as it wished to do so, both the Crimea and the East of Ukraine would not have been annexed by Russia! So, my question, would Russia be willing to let go of both the Crimea and the East, in exchange for membership of both NATO and the EU?

Crimea is a Russian Holiday Resort. I Am Interested in going there to get me a beer and a hamburger.

Respect

Everyone is scared to speak their mind

they gained a piece of russian land

Crimea has been Russian since 1785 before the USA.When will Britain give back Gibraltar to Spain,Australia to the Aborigines,USA back to the Indian tribes..the list is endless...Marvin's et al

Looks like to me that Russia is not the problem But the UN

What Sleboda should have also mentioned is that Crimean Tatars were loathed by Kiev and regarded as parasites, Yatsenyuk used something along that line. Until 2014 when Kiev started feigning that they were the Crimean Tatars' best friends, yet it was only after the "annexation" that Crimean Tatars finally had their rights restored on their native land including rehabilitation from Stalin's brutal deportation of 1944.

Unfortunately,the World is guided by force's language.

Wasn't there an agreement after Ukraine gave up the Nukes...

All the leafes are brown and the sky is grey

Russia ensured that it would keep a major naval base in Crimea, irrespective of whatever type of government exists in Ukraine, be it a friendly one or not.

this was a very heated arguement we must learn how to problem solve without getting disrespecful. I wish I could say i understand what was discussed but I completly have not the slightest clue on clear prospectives of each party. I just want to know now as of 03-2-2022 the war that is going on who was right and who was wrong? or better question out of the 3 who would agree with russias decision for war 🤔 and who sees ukrain as the victim and thinks russia is wrong 🤔?? please I know i might sound stupid im just trying to understand please help answer this question anybody???????

They gain land at the expense of their economy

QUOTE: "America's entire war on terror is an exercise in imperialism. This may come as a shock to Americans, who don't like to think of their country as an empire. But what else can you call America's legions of soldiers, spooks and special forces straddling the globe?" : --- Michael Ignatieff, New York Times, Jul. 28, 2002

What kind of a questions by the Aljazeera moderator? apart from being objectively missguiding.

Your are brothers just go on one ways to regain your ancestors area

Read this and remember forever: "Treaties with Russia is not worth theyre weight in paper"

Crimea was is and always will be Russia

DONT THEY REALIZE EVERYONE IS WATCHING ? I AM EMBARRASSED FOR THEM.

💙💚💛💜

Legally Crimea desire to stay with Russia, and be part it of Russia.