THE OCCUPATION OF CRIMEA: CHRONICLE OF SEIZURE PART 1 ditions of occupation, in the presence of foreign military forces, and in an atmosphere of persecution of pro-Ukraini- an activists. In such an environ- ment it is impossible to speak about the free expression of the public’s will. The prepara- tion of the ‘referendum’ was not intended to assess the true desires of Crimea’s population, as the date of the ‘referendum’ was moved up several times, the time to prepare for the ‘ref- erendum’ was only 9 days, the Pictured: Demonstration in support of the integrity of ability of journalists to cov- Ukraine in Sevastopol, March 9, 2014 er events was restricted, and Ukrainian media was blocked. Moreover, even before the March 16, 2014 ‘referendum’, the illegitimate Crimean parliament had already announced Crimea would join the Russian Federation. The illegitimacy of the results of the Crimean ‘referendum’ was conR rmed by the conclu- sion of the Venice Commission. Pictured: Crimean Tatar demonstration supporting the integrity of Ukraine, Simferopol, March 10, 2014 15