http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/06/us-eu-sanctions-obama-russia-ukraine-crimea
<< Pair issue grave warning to Moscow to pull back from Crimea. Crimean parliament votes to secede from Ukraine. Obama tells Putin: sanctions for "violation of sovereignty". >>
Sudden move? What sudden move? Initially that referendum was appointed for the same day as presidential re-elections, but was later moved forward by two weeks.
Also, this will not be the first referendum on this matter.
On the 20th of January 1991, in the then still Soviet Union Krym held a referendum about becoming an independent Republic within Soviet Union. 93.26% of the population voted for it, yet the results were ignored and Krym was made an autonomous region within Ukrainian SSR.
http://sevkrimrus.narod.ru/ZAKON/1991.htm
In the mean time Turchinov, who illegitimately seized power and proclaimed himself a president, declared Crimean referendum illegitimate and cancels it, also ordering disbanding of the legitimate Crimean parliament:
http://ua-01.com/news/poltika/11562-turchinov-otmenyaet-provedenie-referenduma-v-krymu.html
"Democratic leaders" as defined by US. US had no scruples sending bombers into Yugoslavia and redrawing borders. You can't redraw borders over the heads of democratic leaders, but you can, according to Obama, redraw borders (or in this case prohibit to redraw borders) over the heads of ordinary people, even when said people express their wish to do so.
This made me laugh:
He is absolutely correct: Next will be Poland annexing Lithuania, and Romania annexing Moldova.
Loved one of the comments to the article:
Some consistency problems here:
Voting in Scotland to secede from the UK: OK
Voting in Kosovo to secede from Serbia: OK
Voting in parts of Yugoslavia to secede from the the country: OK
Voting in Ukraine to secede from the Soviet Union: OK
Voting in Crimea to secede from Ukraine: NOT OK
Declaring Independence of the USA from the UK: OK
...
Apparently it depends on the interest and the point of view of an outside power and does not depend on what people in that area/country that wants to secede want.
It saddens me, but I start hearing the echoes of this WWII song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5qp4FBN0KU
Note that the song never mentions any nationality, it is aimed against fascists.