It has become an article of faith that Vladimir Putin acted suddenly in annexing Ukraine’s Crimea that many have ignored something that Leonid Grach, the former leader of the Communist Party on the peninsula, knows well: Russia was actively preparing the groundwork in Crimea for such actions six years before it pounced.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Paul Goble: Moscow started to undermine Ukraine in Crimea already in 2008
People wave Russian national flag as they celebrate the third anniversary of the annexation of the Crimea by the Russian Federation in Sevastopol on March 18.
