http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21599346-post-soviet-world-order-was-far-perfect-vladimir-putins-idea-replacing-it

Frankly, I don’t know why most Maltese people don’t even seem to consider this when thinking of Russia’s action is the Crimea and Ukraine.

It’s the same reason why Ġensa’s “Mittna għall-barrani” is one of the biggest historical fallacies I’ve ever heard: the initial difference between the Axis and Allies in WWII was Hitler and Mussolini’s quest to rework the world order into one of “might is right” for their imperial interests against the latter’s quest for an international system based on rules (the Holocaust was discovered and believed to be happening at a later stage). Malta may have been roped into the Allies’ side by virtue of being part of the British Empire, but, realistically, it could not have stayed neutral for long before being gobbled up by the Axis if they had had their way.

Malta thrives in an international system based on rules and not “might is right”, which is why fighting in WWII on the side of the Allies was in its interests and why no intelligent Maltese person should accept the dangerous precedent set by Russia.

Yugoslavia did not exist before the Versailles Treaty, but Serbia did and Kosovo was a part of it.

The so-called international observers you mention were invited by Russia and chosen from Europe`s far-right and neo-Nazi parties, a strange choice considering the Russian rhetoric against the government in Kiev. Well, perhaps not so strange, given that these parties, like our own Mintoffiani, loathe freedom and democracy and can`t resist strongmen and dictators.

The Soviets did not oppose Nazism for ideological reasons or because of solidarity with its victims, but only to save their own skin.

In fact they were only too happy to collude with Nazis and carve up Eastern Europe between the two evil empires in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Nazism and communism are the opposite faces of the same coin. They may seem different but both enslave and dehumanise man.

The Nazis murdered 11 million civilians of all nationalities. Stalin murdered 3-4 million soviet citizens and starved another 5 million to death with his policy of targeted starvation, mainly aimed at Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

It must have been an immense relief for his victims and a source of great comfort to their relatives that they died at the hands of communism rather than Nazism.

American and European intervention in Yugoslavia, for all the ulterior motives you ascribe, brought the civil wars and the horrendous atrocities to an end and resulted in the overthrow of dictatorship and the establishment of stable relatively prosperous democracies in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro.

The so called international observers were invited by Russia and chosen From Europe`s far right and neo Nazi parties, a strange choice considering the Russian rhetoric against the government in Kiev.

Well, perhaps not so strange, given that neo Nazis, like our Mintoffjani, loathe freedom and democracy but can`t resist strongmen and dictators.

Let me just tell you that whole nations have relinquished their sovereignty to the EU on turnouts much less than 50%. Moreover, the turnout was over 80%, Daphne.

And it’s very hungry, pissed off (read Putin), and ready to return to the old ways.

Even without access to news reports, a bit of common sense tells us that the voter turnout is likely to be much higher than 50%.

Around two thirds of the voters are ethnic Russians. The rest are Ukrainians and Tatars. If we assume that all of the latter abstained, that gives us around 66% voter turnout. If we assume that almost all the ethnic Russians would vote in favour of independence, that gives us, say, 95% of those 66% voting in favour.

But not all of the ethnic Ukranians in Crimea will have voted against. After all, a lot of them have a vested interest in a Russian victory, through marriage, family ties, or jobs. So the figures being reported by the Russian media do add up.

I find some of the BBC reporting just a trifle delusory. They speak “fear of deportation” among ethnic Tatars. Millions of ethnic Tatars live in Russia proper, and none of them have been deported. From where we stand, Russia is made out to be some monolothic Slavic block with just half a dozen minorities: Tatars (newly-discovered by the Western media), Chechens, Georgians, gays, and Indian and African students. In fact there are officially 185 nationalities. That is why it’s called the Russian Federation.

Mr Vella, perhaps you should take a look at what the Saudi-funded islamists of the KLA Kosovo Liberation Army did in Kosovo too.

Don’t forget Izetbegovic’s Saudi-funded army in Bosnia either. That is not to say that the Serbians were innocent but I think history has been unkind to the Serb. After all, the media was absolutely dominated by an American slant at that time. The Americans obviously had their own interests there and they demonised the Serbs and blamed them for everything.

It was wrong to do that when so many Serbs were also killed in open acts of organised genocide — state-sponsored by Croatia — all over Yugoslavia, that includes Kosovo.

@Daphne, if you don’t trust Russia Today, you can google other media reports, by today’s evening, all major media would have to report the same figures and percentages. In fact, other media resources have confirmed the figure even this morning, just too lazy to provide the links for each and everyone.