On: Living in Kiev: My first 3 months of observations

[free652]

Both. Russian forces occupied it, but Crimea's population is over 60% Russian. While the exact referendum poll numbers could have been fabricated (95% for), most of the polls after the referendum showed 80+% support.

[wcummings → free652]

Could have been? C'mon, nothing gets 95% of the vote, no matter how uncontroversial.

[free652 → wcummings]

Its actually believable, since it was occupied it's fair to assume that pro-Ukrainians would be afraid to vote.

[geoka9 → free652]

It was actually 100% because both of the questions asked at the referendum meant secession from Ukraine; i.e. it wasn't a simple "yes" or "no", it was essentially "secede immediately" or "do it a bit later".

[Const-me → free652]

Just because someone is Russian doesn’t mean they would like to live in Russia.

I’m Russian, born there, grew up there. I haven’t been in Russia since 2012. And I’d rather be dead than visit Russia ever again.

Speaking of Crimea, pre-war opinion polls are available. One of them tells us only 38% of Crimea residents wanted to join Russia: http://www.km.ru/world/2012/09/14/polozhenie-russkoyazychnog...