| What many don't seem to understand about Crimea, is that Crimea is an occupied territory of Ukraine [0] (as understood by UN, as well as most countries except the Russian Federation and several of its affiliated states). As an occupied territory, it doesn't have any legitimate institutions (such as a recognised government, banks, courts, etc.) — only a foreign occupation regime. Same way as Germany's Reichskommissariats and Reichprotektorats during WW2 were never legitimate entities despite being de facto governed by Germany. This means than no contract (private or public) with a Crimean entity can be internationally recognised and will be easily contested by any court/arbitrage outside of the RF. In addition to this, there's a moral concern of giving legitimacy to a foreign occupation. There's just no way to justify this unless one supports the mentioned occupation, with following systemic abuse of human rights, change of ethnic composition and militarisation. [0]: https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/71/205 |
This is why I have such mixed feelings about these kind of sanctions: sure, I don't really disagree with what you're saying, but on the other hand in practice it means hurting normal people just building a life for themselves.