[re: Ukraine, Crimea]; Sergei Roy’s piece

Subject: Sergei Roy’s piece
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2014
From: [experienced Western journalist]

I spent one month in Kyiv, Crimea and eastern Ukraine and will be back there again soon. I have also been to Ukraine many times before, including Crimea.

Sergei Roy’s piece is not insightful, it is inciteful. Below are a few private ruminations on that piece.

It is so full or errors and exaggerations I don’t know where to begin. Nor do I have the time to do so right now.

But as good a place to begin a critique is his opinion about how the western media covered the referendum results. Editors and editorialists may have said the result was achieved under the gun, but few western reporters there did. But I did report that during the 7 day campaign to decide Crimea’s future, the only pro-Ukrainian demonstration by ethnic Ukrainians and Russians was set upon by a gang of Cossacks (most of whom seemed to be from Russia. No ads of any kind supporting the case for Ukraine were tolerated. And television eliminated all pro-Ukrainian reporting as thoroughly as Ukrainian authorities eliminated pro-Russian sentiment from their airwaves.

My guess is that the population of Crimea was about 80-20 in favour of joining Russia. But most of them did not cast ballots because they either say no point or feared retribution from the “scrutineers” who could see how everyone had voted by peering into the see-through ballot boxes. Nor, it must be said, did I see one scrutineer anywhere who was brave enough to say they were their to observe for the pro-Ukraine side. Every observer was for the Russian side.

The result was more-or-less a reflection of public opinion on the day, but in no way was the ballot democratic according to any westerners understanding of the word. There was no campaign to speak of. And the opinion of only one side was allowed to be heard. As for the billboards, many of them were ridiculous and full of hatred.

Roy also repeats the ridiculous assertion that no Russian troops were brought from Russia to Crimea. If this was so, why seize and close airports where Russian military transports could be seen in the distance? Why was every piece of equipment the Russian troops had of the newest kind that few Russian troops in Crimea have received? For example, their smaller armoured vehicles, which they had by the hundreds, had never ever before been seen in Crimea. And Crimean Russians who support Moscow told me this. Why were many of the military licence plates from Russian districts such as Rostov and the Chuvash Republic? And why did so many of the troops tell me that they had come from Sochi protecting the Olympics? They were typical Russian kids with lots of opinions about Russian hockey. Several told me they were from the Russian mainland and in the infantry. But none would tell me what specific units they came from.

All this to say that Roy’s stuff about this is a total nonsense.

Ms Le Pen will do better in French elections than her father but not nearly as well as Roy suggests. Mentioning her was odd. A real red herring.

I do agree with Roy about much of what he said about Ukrainian politics, and in particular about Timoshenko, who is an odious character. And about some of what he said about the Russian language, although he does not think it worth mentioning that many of those Russians who ended up on Ukraine and the Baltic and Central Asia were sent there specifically so that Russia could colonize and therefore assert better control over them. Except for part of eastern Ukraine and a belt around Sevastopol, none of them were Russians who were truly from these places. They were imported for political reasons and are still being used for political reasons.

Still, it was good to read Roy. It reminds of of Russia’s delusions and grievances because they nobody thinks on them anymore as anything but a regional power . Thanks for putting the article out to your audience.