Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Crimea as the region holds its first Victory Day commemorations — celebrating the victory over Nazi Germany — since Crimea's predominantly Russian-speaking population voted overwhelmingly to join the Russian Federation. Now that the dust has settled from last Sunday's referendum in two eastern Ukrainian regions, Putin's victory parade in Crimea can be perceived in proper perspective. Putin viewed an air and naval show featuring 70 aircraft, to symbolise the 70th anniversary of Sevastopol's liberation by Soviet forces. The celebrations took place in Sevastopol and the port city reverberated with nationalist fervour. Sevastopol is the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet. This was a triumphant victory parade. More than 97 per cent of voters in Crimea chose to join Russia in a referendum in March. The vote was boycotted by the vast majority of Crimean Tatars, who constitute some 15 per cent of the peninsula's population. Even so, judging by the widely publicised and televised show, Putin received an exceptionally warm reception in Crimea. Pro-Kremlin anti-Kiev insurgents in eastern Ukraine are yearning to follow in Crimea's footsteps and call the authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kiev “neo-Nazis” and the “fascist junta”. Russian nationalist rhetoric reached a crescendo in Crimea with Putin's tour of the Black Sea peninsula. Washington's response to Putin's Crimean parade was frosty. “Such a visit will only serve to fuel tensions,” National Security Council spokeswoman Laura Lucas Magnuson stated categorically. Nevertheless, other eastern Ukrainian regions, such as the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk, planned to hold a referendum scheduled for last Sunday seeking autonomy and integration into the Russian Federation in defiance of Putin who urged pro-Russian supporters to postpone the referendum. Pro-Moscow activists in eastern Ukraine — namely Donetsk, Luhansk and Slovyansk — vowed last Thursday to press ahead with the referendum regardless of Putin's admonishment. The West's dithering has reached a stage where it is transfixing the authorities in Kiev. Nevertheless, the head of Ukraine's National Security Council, Andriy Parubiy, called the referendum “political fraud” and “unconstitutional”. Ukrainians detect a whiff of angst in these designations. Hardly anyone in eastern Ukraine is paying the slightest attention to Kiev's empty pronouncements. Cynicism verging on nihilism has taken control in Kiev. The reality on the ground in eastern Ukraine is that the authorities in Kiev are fast losing their grip on large swathes of Ukrainian territory and are incapable of stopping the pro-Russian secessionist momentum in the eastern half of the country. And it is not obvious how Kiev can take on the secessionists. Be that as it may, Ukrainian presidential elections are scheduled for 25 May. The European Union has dismissed the Ukrainian elections as bogus. In a joint statement German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande dismissed last Sunday's referendum in eastern Ukraine as “illegitimate”. So how can the West stop Russian-speaking Ukrainians from believing the Kremlin — and Putin in particular — to be a miracle worker? Ukraine needs a jolt, and the secession of the Russian-speaking parts of the country is a risk worth taking. There is no denying that a spirit of anti-Kiev and pro-Moscow is permeating the country. There is something thrilling about the rise of Russian nationalism in eastern Ukraine. As the authorities in Kiev gear up to flog bits of Ukraine to Russia, Putin is determined to give the breakaway eastern Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine a chance to determine their own political future. Russia, as the world's sixth largest economy, and with vast energy resources that not only supply Ukraine, but also European Union nations as well, is immune to threats of sanctions by either Washington or Kiev. It will in the foreseen future certainly wield tremendous influence on Kiev with or without the secession of Ukraine eastern provinces. Needless to say, the West is powerless to stop the process of integration of eastern Ukrainian Russian-speaking regions. Ukraine's economy is in an unbalanced state and only Russia promises real salvation. The European Union is in no position to assist with the Eurozone crisis still brewing. The pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine declared that the preliminary results of a contentious referendum show nearly 98 per cent of voters have supported sovereignty for their region in Donetsk and 96 per cent in Luhansk. An overwhelming majority of those who cast their ballots voted for self-rule. Roman Lyagin, election chief of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, said around 75 per cent of the region's three million voters cast ballots on Sunday. Pro-Russian separatists announced that they would prevent Ukraine's 25 May presidential elections from being held in the Donetsk region. The upper echelons of Kiev's politicians are vehemently anti-Kremlin. “The farce that terrorists call the referendum will have no legal consequences except criminal responsibility for its organisers,” Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov retorted in Kiev as results of the referendum were announced in Dontsk and Luhansk. Washington, too, rejected outright Sunday's referendum. In sharp contrast, for eastern Ukrainian separatists Putin is panacea. The eastern Ukrainian pro-Russia separatists indicated that they would follow Sunday's poll with another plebiscite a week later on uniting with Russia. The Kremlin has not given a definitive answer on precisely how it will respond, and there are those in the Kremlin who would prefer to see a federal Ukraine. How Russia the will respond is, indeed, an enigma of prodigious proportions. Western powers have insisted that with no independent observers monitoring the referendum in Donetsk and Luhansk, verifying the figures will prove problematic. Neither Russia nor pro-Russian separatists are taking to heart Western protestations. As Al-Ahram Weekly went to press, it appears that the pro-Russian separatists of eastern Ukraine are determined as never before for their self-styled “people's republics” to join Russia “Crimea-style”. Whether Russia will oblige is the million-dollar question. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pleaded with authorities in Kiev to engage in “dialogue” with the insurgents in Kiev, arguing that international talks on the Ukraine crisis could be convened unless and until the government in Kiev accepted the eastern Ukrainian Russian speakers' legitimate rights for political self-determination. Tellingly, Lavrov also reiterated Moscow's “respect” for the results of the referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk.
