Abstract
The author examines the role of Crimea in the Russian state, beginning with a justification of the legality of the region's annexation as both a reflection of the historical connection between Crimea and Russia and the result of the illegitimacy of the post-coup government in Ukraine. He then turns to the potential role of the integration of Crimea as a national project that could revive Russia while allowing its leaders to root out traitors and other undesirables from among the Russian elites.
Notes
English translation © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text, “Krym dlia Rossii—pervyi shag vozvrashcheniia v Mir,” Svobodnaia mysl, no. 2, 2014, pp. 97–112.Mikhail Gennadievich Deliagin is director of the Institute for Problems of Globalization and a Doctor of Economic Sciences.Translated by Stephen D. Shenfield.
# Ukraine is now building a dam to block the flow of water to Crimea.—Trans.
# A village in southern Ukraine, birthplace and base of the anarchist Nestor Makhno, who led a peasant rebellion against both Whites and Reds during the Russian Civil War. For the author, Huliaipole [Gulyai-Polye in the Russian version] symbolizes banditry and disorder.—Trans.