3 Mar 2014

Tensions in Crimea – a question of identity

They weren’t very friendly when we turned up at the besieged Ukrainian marine base at Feodosiya this morning.

The base was at the end of a road which had been blocked by a Russian armoured vehicle and six well-armed Russian soldiers.

They were not the problem. It was the local people who descended on us – accusing us of being fascists and provocateurs only here to cause trouble. Our Russian guide tried to reason with them but they were having none of it.

Passions are running high in Crimea as Russian forces consolidate their hold over the peninsula.

The Ukrainian troops in the base that we could not reach are in a difficult situation. They come from all over the country. Some of them must surely have sympathy with the new authorities in Kiev while others, especially those who come from Crimea, may well support the idea of Crimea reverting to Russia. Still others will find their loyalties torn between the two.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have always worked together in Crimea as part of the deal worked out when Ukraine got independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

‘Who are we?’

That goes for many ordinary people here too. The pro-Russian mob who stopped us from filming say it is simple. They speak Russian. They identify with Russia. They compare the new authorities in Kiev with the Nazis who invaded Ukraine in 1941.

But other Crimeans I have met say they juggle all their identities. One businessman said to me “I am Crimean, Russian and Ukrainian. These are all our soldiers.”

A young man I met today in Feodosiya said: “Most people here run businesses that depend on tourism. They don’t want all this trouble because they know they will lose money.”

All over Crimea people are being forced to choose. In Sevastopol today, Ukrainian naval troops were addressed by two naval commanders – one loyal to Kiev, one to the new authorities in Crimea, which means Russia.

Who would have thought that more than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union these issues of identity and power would reassert themselves so dangerously?

For President Putin and President Obama it’s a question of geopolitics and big strategy. But for people here on the ground it’s a question of who they are and how they feel. They are being forced to choose, long after they had learned to live with the ambivalence of being in a Russian-dominated region within Ukraine.

One man is reported to have asked the Russian troops: “who are you?” – the troops tend not to answer that question, they are the strong and silent type.

But the question “who are we?” is the one most Crimeans are having to ask themselves today. And the answer isn’t easy.

Follow @lindseyhilsum on Twitter.

Tweets by @lindseyhilsum