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From Our Own Correspondent: Ukraine: past and present

Ukraine: past and present

26/03/2014

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Ukraine: past and present

A job offer from the President of Crimea; Ukrainian independence, in 1991 and today.

Jamie Coomarasamy meets the one-time President of Crimea; Stephen Mulvey reflects on what Ukraine's move for independence in 1991 tells us about the rhetoric of today's disputes.

The situation in Ukraine remains tense. Russia is preparing to absorb Crimea based on an independence referendum whose validity Kiev and the West refuse to recognise. Ukrainian army troops remain stationed in the region. And pro-Russians in other parts of Ukraine clamour for their own opportunities to secede to Moscow.

Our correspondents ask what Ukraine's recent history can teach us about this highly complex state of affairs. Jamie Coomarasamy meets the man who was briefly President of Crimea, before being exiled by the Ukrainian authorities. What does he make of rejoining Russia? And will Jamie accept his offer of employment? 

Meanwhile, how does Crimea's independence movement measure up to the Ukrainian one which succeeded in 1991? The answer, claims Stephen Mulvey, is all in the moustaches.

Presenter: Pascale Harter
Producer: Ben Weisz

Photo: People demonstrate waving Ukrainian and European flags during the independence referendum campaign in Kiev 30 November 1991.
Photo credit: SERGEY SUPINSKI/AFP/Getty Images

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