One year since Crimean referendum

In march 2014, after months of widespread protests and fighting swept Ukraine, the people of the Crimean region voted to leave the country. In a referendum on march 16, 2014, voters requested instead to join the Russian federation.

With the referendum, the tiny region of just over two million people was thrust into the eye of one of the biggest geopolitical storms in Europe since the cold war.

The local crimean authorities believed the earlier ousting of elected ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych through violent protests was as a coup. They feared the new right-wing ukrainian government, would revoke civil rights protecting the russian speaking majority of crimeans.

History also shaped the outcome. The crimea was the only ukrainian region where ethnic russians constituted an absolute majority. The area had also been part of russia itself until the late 1950s - with ties going back centuries.

Nevertheless, the referendum vote was controversial - and rejected by all european union members and the united states who alleged it was a russian power grab. In contrast, Russia recognized the results citing the Kosovo declaration of independence as a precedent and highlighting western hypocrisy given western support for the new ukrainian government.