Why has Russia always wanted the Crimea so much...

The U.S doesn't hold on to Panama

;)

now that he mentions it though

Manifest Destiny!

All of Ukraine is Russian clay.

Yes

Extremely strategic, naval bases, russian population, clay, and a popular annexation in Russia.

Not too long ago it was just gifted by the Commies to Ukraine.

We have guaranteed rights to the Canal. Almost like a semi-sovereign zone.

We also have a military base there to enforce that right.

Crimea is essential to controlling the Black Sea.

Little green men know how to protect that clay.

Up your google skills a notch. When the Russians annexed Crimea, the USA conducted dozens of botched secret operations.
For example the Russians set up jammers and shut down the American Drones.
What use is a guided missile if the superior Russian Jammers can disrupt the uplink to their controller.

Once Nikita Chruscov gave Crimea to Ukraine as a gift, it didn´t matter because it was one country but after the fall of USSR Russia inherited the legacy of the state thus claiming all of their core area including Crimea.

Because for the last couple of centuries the Russian long term goal has been control of the straits, providing access to the Mediteranean. That's why they fought all those wars with the Ottomans, not because of "liberation of muh Slav brothers".

The whole current shit about muh referendum, fascist Ukraine and muh historical clay is simply propaganda for the plebs.

The Russian people wanted it. Taking the Crimea boosted Putin's approval ratings by 10%

>The Russian people wanted it.
They didn't know they wanted it until it was annexed. Then the media (controlled by the state) made it unpatriotic to claim it was not liberated by the fascists.

Why wouldn't they want a territory that's majority Russian and right next to their nation? I doubt they are so ignorant to the world that they just wouldn't care about it.

Lots of neighboring territories have Russian majority and lots of territories in Russia have non-Russian majorities. Only the bottom 1% of the bydlo population cared about "muh clay"

>Lasers and missiles can't do much against fortified bunker

Holy shit, I didn't even know 150% was possible.

60% of Russia's navy was stationed in Ukraine because Ukraine was a good ally of Russia until the 2014 US backed revolution but if crimea fell into hostile hands then Russia would lose access to Sevastopol so they had Russian Spetznaz guarding that area along with the Crimeans when they decided to first declare independence from Ukraine and later on they voted to be annexed by Russia.

oil pipelines and naval bases.

Russia doesn't really give too much of a shit about the wasteland of eastern Ukraine. But they do care a whole lot about Crimea, because it's important strategically. The ongoing war in other areas is just to gain leverage over NATO so they get away with securing Crimea.

This is also why they're pissed at Turkey lately, because Turkey occupies the other strategic point and contests their power over the Black Sea.

>Why does the US hold on to Panama?

Latin America has been our bitch since our birth. We should have owned all of it had not been for the dumb slave issue. Whatever, today we own all of the Western Hemisphere but in name.

>muh warm water

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melilla

Azov doesn't really afford an access to the Black sea and beyond due to Kerch being what it is. As for the caucasus, there's the little problem of having THE CAUCASUS between the coast and the heartland.

Not that important these days tbqh. Ukrops could be theoretically supplied from the west and the black sea is little more than a backwater. I mean RUS holds the peninaula but UKR is still defiant and TUR controls the straits. So pretty meh. Crimean value is probably inflated by gas found nearby and as an internal symbol for sovietnostalgia these days than anything much else.

;)

Crimea is essential to controlling the black sea, as said before.

the Russians were mostly fine with the Black Sea fleet renting out Sevastopol's port, but still edged Ukraine on to reject NATO and the EU to prevent the possibility of losing their positions in the South.

Then the revolution changed everything, with the possibility of a Poroshenko government making a break for NATO membership, Russia picked up Crimea as insurance against the worst case scenario, that if they lose Ukraine to NATO, they'll at least have a fortress in the south to defend their interests in the black sea.

They also took it because they knew there'd be no resistance. Most of the Crimean population have had it out for Ukraine for a long while and vote pro-Russian (not 96% like the ballot says, it's more likely to be 60-70%) and capturing it wouldn't pose any trouble when it came to dealing with any resistance.

What was most surprising, even to Putin, was that the Ukrainian garrison backed down and vacated the island with less than 50 rounds fired. It was shocking to everyone in Russian intelligence that there was no military resistance whatsoever, but all the better to enforce their claim on the island for being so bloodless.

What confuses me the most is that NATO has almost everything they want, they have the bulk of Ukraine just sitting there waiting to join NATO and have American troops place missiles and tanks on the Russian border, but NATO has chosen to let this golden opportunity slip by, saying that expanding to ukraine is against their interests, when NATO's primary goal since its founding is to defeat Russia at all costs.

>the Ukraine.
>the
Triggered

Except they did and Russia has been asking for it back since 1995.

so what you're saying is that you don't own all of the western hemisphere

Referendum can be true. Crimea has an autonomy and always war more pro-Russian than the rest of the Ukraine.

> they're pissed at Turkey lately
> lately

it was always been russia's . they gave it away for free to ukraine when they were allies.
the betrayal made them take back what it was theres.