User blog comment:Local Mafia Boss/Crimea Crisis/@comment-4206034-20140306202629/@comment-3528888-20140308133056

Thing is, with or without Russian troops in the region, the Refferendum results would be quite similar. The Crimea is the only Ukrainian region that has a majority(60%) ethnic russian population, and has a 75% russian as mother tongue. THis region was historicaly Russian, and was given to Ukriane in 1954 as a sign of goodwill during soviet times, which ammounted de facto to no real change, since the Ukrainian SSR was a part of the Soviet Union. However, due to the fact that moscow still controlled it, the allegiances of the population, language, and ethnic makeup have not changed dramaticaly since then, giving a much more pro-russian population than the rest of the country. I would not be surprised if Putin agreed to bring troops back before the referendum, or at least allow international observers, because he knows crimea will vote to join russia regardless, especialy since Kiev just outlawed the Use of any language other than Ukrainian in governement papers, documents, etc...