After 2014 , Crimea became a part of the Russian Federation . A year earlier , the president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych rejected the association agreement with the European Union in order to tighten economic ties with Russia . This step became a reason for the Euromaidan protests . Russia framed the protests as fascist movements hostile to the Russian minorities of Ukraine . As the majority of the Crimean population was Russian , panic spread through the peninsula . Using this opportunity , Russia intervened and the armed group called “ Little green men ” raised a Russian flag on the roof of the Crimean Supreme Council ’ s building . In less than a month , the Crimean Supreme Council voted to secede from Ukraine and declare it as a sovereign territory within the Russian Federation ( Crimean Supreme Council 2014 ). After the referendum that was organized in Crimea , Moscow officially declared the Republic of Crimea and the Federative City of Sevastopol territorial subjects of the Russian Federation ( Russian State Duma 2014 ).
A number of different nationalities have been living in the territory of Crimea and it is interesting to understand what impact the territorial and sovereignty transitions of the 20th and 21st centuries have had on the population of Crimea . During the 20th century , in addition to Russians , who constituted the majority in Crimea , among other ethnicities residing in the peninsula were Ukrainians , Crimean Tatars , Armenians , etc . For example , in 1939 , Crimean Tatars comprised 19.43 %, Ukrainians 13.68 %, and Armenians 1.15 % of Crimea ’ s population ( Demoscope weekly 1939 ).
After the collapse of the Soviet Union , Crimea remained a part of Ukraine . However , a referendum was conducted in 1991 to understand if the population of Crimea wished to “ Re-establish the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as a subject of the Union SSR and a participant of the Union Treaty ” ( crimea . vgorode . ua 2014 ). 93.26 % of the population of Crimea said “ yes ” to territorial autonomy . Voter turnout was 81.37 % while the percentage of people who voted against the re-establishment of the Crimean ASSR was 5.64 % ( Noskova 2016 ). In 1992 , the Crimean Supreme Council adopted its constitution which was amended the same year , and twice more in 1994 . Finally , at the end of 1998 , the Ukrainian Parliament approved the Crimean constitution . After 1992 , the question of the independent statehood of Crimea depended solely on the President of Ukraine . If the president was pro-Russian , the situation in Crimea was calm and harmonious . If the president was pro-Western , separatist and independent statebuilding narratives spread all over the peninsula . So , the latent phase of the conflict on the status of Crimea was marked by calm and positional controversy manifestations ( Hovhannisian 2018 ).
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