An international conference held in Yalta highlights how Crimea has been subjected to harsh sanctions by the West since it conducted a constitutionally valid referendum to secede from Ukraine in 2014.
IT HAS BEEN MORE THAN THREE YEARS SINCE the people inhabiting the Crimean peninsula overwhelmingly voted to rejoin Russia. In the referendum held in March 2014, as many as 96.77 per cent of the votes were cast in favour of the proposal to leave the Republic of Ukraine. The turnout of voters was 83.1. The people of Crimea took the decision to hold a fair and free referendum after the “coup d’etat” in Ukraine. The democratically elected President of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych, was forcibly ousted from the capital, Kiev, through violent street protests orchestrated by right-wing groups, financed and supported by the West. He was removed unconstitutionally from office shortly after he fled the Ukrainian capital. He then sought refuge briefly in a more hospitable part of the country before finally seeking asylum in Russia. Intercepts of high-level meddling from American officials were released, including those of calls by hawkish interventionists in the Obama administration such as Samantha Powers, calling for regime change in Ukraine.
Yanukovych’s major crime in the eyes of the West was that he turned down at the eleventh hour the European Union’s (E.U) offer for closer integration in favour of strengthening ties with Ukraine’s immediate neighbour and traditional ally, Russia. The illegal removal of a democratically elected President was camouflaged by a sham parliamentary vote of no-confidence in February 2014. The autonomous government of Crimea responded by declaring that it no longer recognised the Ukrainian central government’s sovereignty over its territory. Crimea, it should be remembered, was not part of Ukraine until 1954. Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) at the time, transferred the peninsula to Ukraine for purely administrative reasons.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
