Five years ago this month, the Kremlin proclaimed Crimea to be part of Russia. With that, Russia’s political elites, intelligence officers and military servicemen ushered in a new world order.
This post-2014 era has been described as the end of peace in Europe, the twilight of America’s unipolar international supremacy, or a new Cold War between the US and Russia. Yet Russia’s elites could not have brought about these tectonic shifts without the help of an overlooked, but crucial ally: the Crimean people. In fact, in late February and early March 2014, ordinary Crimeans were helping the great power struggles of the 21st century to take shape.
The tumultuous events that unfolded on the Black Sea coast in 2014 during this period can be best described as follows: a Russian state intelligence and military operation that exploited elements of a local Crimean conservative counter-revolution, which was emerging in response to the change of power in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Without the full force of Russia’s special operation, local anti-Kyiv Crimeans would never have succeeded in breaking away from Ukraine. Yet the efforts of locals, especially Russian ethnic nationalists, also drove the special operation forward.
