Life on the Black Sea peninsula, for most if not all its residents, has been turned upside down, at least in the short term. Shopkeepers post prices in both Russian rubles and Ukrainian hryvnia, and have to resort to hand calculators to make change. Lawyers and judges complain that the legal system is all but paralyzed. And Crimea’s main economic engine, tourism, is in danger, as the turmoil spooks tour operators and new visa requirements make vacations more of a headache.
And those who rejected annexation to Russia may not have a choice:
For those who want to keep their Ukrainian citizenship, however, authorities have set up a byzantine process and a strict deadline of Apr. 18 to do so. Those who don’t meet the deadline automatically become Russian citizens.
Russian citizenship is so great you don't even have the option of rejecting it!
I know it is early. But the notion that Crimeans would be eager to get inside Putin's increasingly dictatorial system struck me as insane:
And let's wrap our heads around the idiocy of Crimeans begging to go into Putin's Russia. Did nobody point out that when the opportunity presented itself between 1989 and 1992 that everybody who could manage it escaped from the then-Soviet Union's loving grip?
Putin has let Crimeans know that while they can check out anytime they like, they can never leave.
And so the Crimeans said, "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device" Ukrainians in the east should take note.
