Comments by "RenShiWu" (@renshiwu305) on "Ukraine u0026 The Crimean War: The Parallels" video.

  1. The Crimean political debate in Britain was: "the Ottoman Empire is bad" versus "Russia is bad and an aggressive power." The Russo-Turkish War (1877-78) replicated the same arguments, with Gladstone (Leader of the Opposition) adopting the former and Disraeli (the Prime Minister) adopting the latter.
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  2. 54% of Crimea voted for Ukrainian independence during the 1991 referendum. 83% of Luhansk Oblast and 74% of Donetsk Oblast (the Ukrainian provinces that have been occupied since 2014) did as well.
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  3.  @kelvinkersey5058  Well, Russia was advancing into Central Asia during the latter half of the 19th Century. Only a thin strip of Afghanistan (which was a buffer state) separated Tajikistan (which remained part of the Russian empire until 1991) from the North-West frontier of India. The Suez Canal didn't exist at the time of the Crimean War, but its security was a definite preoccupation of the British Government, leading it to reinforce the Bosporous. Benjamin Disraeli was the prime mover in securing the Bosporous against Russia and also in purchasing a British interest in the Suez Canal.
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