http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ukraine--the-invasion-begins-armed-russianspeaking-gunmen-with-crimea-in-their-grip-as-barack-obama-warns-moscow-9161476.html
Independent
1Mar2014
Ukraine - The invasion begins: armed Russian-speaking gunmen with Crimea in their grip as Barack Obama warns Moscow
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Into this combustible mix appeared Vladimir Zhirinovsky, seen by many internationally as a somewhat absurd figure but not here, not in the current atmosphere.
The veteran demagogue of the Russian far right turned up at a roadblock outside Simferopol. Beaming members of the Crimean People’s Brigade were only too happy to help him on his way to Sevastopol, the home of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet.
There, Mr Zhirinovsky held two addresses. One, in front of the local government offices, as befits a deputy state Duma speaker, was relatively restrained: “Russia will help the economic situation here in the south-east… We Russians don’t want to create the impression we will ‘take’ Crimea… Crimea should decide its future for itself.”
Later, however, an address to men wearing the orange and black ribbons of the Russian military order of St George, was different. “Be faithful to yourselves, be proud to be Russians; we were here long before there were any ‘Ukrainians’. These ‘Ukrainians’, they have their Maidan [Kiev’s Independence Square, the centre of the protest movement]. Well, we have our Magadan.”
There were loud cheers – the crowd knew he was referring to the gulag in eastern Siberia at the time of Stalin, where thousands perished.
Mr Zhirinovsky had flown into Simferopol on Friday afternoon. In the morning, six military trucks had arrived at the airport, disgorging men in combat fatigues, balaclavas, and helmets who were carrying semi-automatic rifles and PKN machine guns. They had brought mortar rounds and, according to airport officials, rations for two months.
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