Crimea River

As soon as Yanukovych fled to Russia after the Ukranian revolution of 2014, Putin decided to just take Crimea “back”.  Like Ossetia, Crimea had sort of wanted to be independent, but it was technically part of Ukraine. Geographically, it’s the peninsula that extends south form Ukraine into the Black Sea.

This time, instead of Crimea “declaring their independence and then asking to join Russia, Russia simply invaded.  “Little green men” (Russian soldiers wearing no insignia) took over the peninsula and the port of Sevastopol. Putin signed a treaty of accession with the self-declared Republic of Crimea, annexing it into the Russian Federation. Ukraine along with the international community called the annexation an illegal “change to the integrity of Ukraine”.

This led to a first round ofinternational sanctions that have remained in place against Russia and a number of named individuals.   The sanctions, along with a fall in oil prices, led to a collapse of the Ruble and a decline in the Russian economy.  

These were not, ostensibly, the sanctions that were the subject of the Trump Tower meeting. Those sanctions were a result of the MagnitskyAct of 2012.  Nor were they the sanctions that Michael Flynn told the Russians not to worry about; that the Trump administration would remove them as soon as they got into office.  Those sanctions were the result of Russian meddling in our election.