History of Crimea (1991–2014)
Following the impeachment of the relatively pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia invaded Crimea, overthrew the elected autonomous government and claimed to annex it in 2014.
On 17 December 1992, the office of the Ukrainian presidential representative in Crimea was created, which led to a wave of protests a month later.
[19] Meshkov was removed from power[20] after Ukrainian special forces had entered his residence, disarmed his bodyguards and put him on a plane to Moscow.
[21] Meshkov was replaced by Kyiv-appointed Anatoliy Franchuk, with the intent to rein in Crimean aspirations of autonomy.
[23] On 15 January 1993, Kravchuk and Yeltsin in the meeting in Moscow appointed Eduard Baltin as the commander of the Black Sea Fleet.
[25]: 600 In a separate agreement, Russia was to receive 80 percent of the Black Sea Fleet and use of the military facilities in Sevastopol on a 20-year lease.
Ukraine extended Russia's lease of the naval facilities under the 2010 Kharkiv Pact in exchange for further discounted natural gas.
Chaos in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) during a debate over the extension of the lease on a Russian naval base erupted on 27 April 2010 after Ukraine's parliament ratified the treaty that extends Russia's lease on a military wharf and shore installations in the Crimean port Sevastopol until 2042.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn had to be shielded by umbrellas as he was pelted with eggs, while smoke bombs exploded and politicians brawled.
A series of terrorist actions rocked the peninsula in the winter; among them were the arson of the Mejlis apartment, the shooting of a Ukrainian official, several hooligan attacks on Meshkov, the bomb explosion in the house of a local parliamentary, the assassination attempt on a Communist presidential candidate, and others.
On 11 January, the Mejlis announced their representative, Mykola Bahrov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament, as the presidential candidate.
In 2006, protests broke out on the peninsula after U.S. Marines[31] arrived at the Crimean city of Feodosiya to take part in the Sea Breeze 2006 Ukraine–NATO military exercise.
[33] During a press conference in Moscow on 16 February 2009, the Mayor of Sevastopol Serhiy Kunitsyn claimed (citing recent polls) that the population of Crimea is opposed to the idea of becoming a part of Russia.
[34] Although western newspapers like The Wall Street Journal have speculated about a Russian coup in Sevastopol or another Crimean city in connection with the Russian-Georgian war and the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Russia,[35] Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), stated on 17 February 2009 that he was confident that any "Ossetian scenario" was impossible in Crimea.
Sergei Tsekov, a senior pro Russian politician, said then that he hoped that Russia would endorse Crimeaan separatism in the same way as it had done in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
[40] A pro-Russian demonstration of several thousand people took place in Sevastopol on 23 February 2014 in the wake of Yanukovych's flight during the Revolution of Dignity.
Thus, in the period just prior to 2014, Crimea was not experiencing intense mobilization against Ukraine or on behalf of absorption into Russia.
