One might think the unceasing release of radioactive substances that potentially threaten the health and safety of people around the globe to a greater or lesser extent might get more attention (at least as a health concern if not as an event tantamount to an act of war), but then one would not be thinking like an international leader.
In terms of geopolitical significance, it matters more to those in charge that people are living under their politically preferred ideology than if they're being exposed to excess radiation that will make them sick, give them cancers, or kill them. Fukushima is the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl (which just happens to be in Ukraine). The 1986 meltdown of just one nuclear reactor left a radioactively contaminated "dead zone" of more than 1,000 square miles from which evacuation was compulsory (although some 200, mostly elderly "samosely" are allowed to remain). Other danger zones, from which the government compels or assists resettlement, exist outside the "dead zone" and have yielded more than 100,000 nuclear refugees. [There is at least one other, 834 square mile "dead zone" in Belarus, which received an estimated 72% of the early heavy fallout from Chernobyl, contaminating 25% of the country. Additionally, more than two million people in Belarus still live in radioactively contaminated areas that have been made "safe" by the government's arbitrarily raising radiation limits. The Belarus and French governments, together with the United Nations and nuclear industry interests (including the IAEA), run a program (secret before 2004) to resettle people into radioactive areas. Reportedly, the Japanese government, TEPCO, and U.N. agencies are considering resettling Fukushima the same way, by defining danger away.]
Crimea has NEVER been an integrated, satisfied part of Ukraine
Almost twice as big as Fukushima, Crimea is still a relatively small place, but with a character all its own. Crimea's 10,404 square miles represent less than one-twentieth of Ukraine (233,000 square miles, bigger than California, smaller than Texas). Chernobyl, not that far from Kiev, has always been more or less part of Ukraine. By stark contrast, the history of Crimea's integration with Ukraine is all but non-existent in history. In the mid-1400s, Crimea was a Tatar state founded by a descendant of Genghis Khan. In 1478, Crimea became a tributary of the Ottoman Empire until 1774, when it became an independent state, essentially liberated by Russia (until Russia annexed it in 1783). Crimea remained part of Russia until 1917, when it declared its independence again (which lasted about a year, before it was occupied by the Soviet Union, then the Germans, then the Soviet Union again).
In 1921, Crimea was granted "autonomy," which was interrupted by the German occupation (1941-43), then stripped by the Soviet Union in 1945. Still part of the Soviet Union in 1954, Crimea was organizationally transferred to Ukraine, also part of the Soviet Union. In 1991, Crimea became the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, within the Soviet Union, followed by a power struggle with the Kiev government in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's break-up. In early 1992, the Crimean Parliament proclaimed its independence as the Republic of Crimea and adopted its first constitution (which it amended the same day to say Crimea was part of Ukraine); within weeks, Crimea dropped its proclamation of self-government in an apparent trade-off for greater autonomy from Kiev, but the dispute over the status of Crimea continued to feed political turmoil until Ukraine executed a constitutional coup. On March 17, 1995, the Kiev government scrapped the Crimean constitution, sacked the Crimean president and eventually established, with obvious irony, the "Autonomous Republic of Crimea" -- which still had periodic anti-Kiev eruptions and now (as of March 16) has voted to join the Russian Federation.
Contrary to many media reports that the Crimean referendum offered no real choice, the actual ballot had two rather different and nuanced choices:
1. "Do you support rejoining
Crimea with Russia as a subject of the Russian Federation?"
2. "Do you support restoration of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Crimea and Crimea's status as a part of Ukraine?"
Stripped bare, the mainstream media typically say the referendum offers "no choice" because the media don't like the actual choice offered: independence or join Russia. What the media don't say is that they want Crimea to have a choice to remain under the thumb of Kiev with no greater "autonomy." Of course that's intellectually dishonest, but it does illuminate the absurdity of arguing about Ukraine's "territorial integrity," which has included Crimea for about twenty of the past 600 years. Most of that time Crimea seems to have been seeking independence from large countries that refused to leave it alone.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
