GURZUF, Crimea — On a sweltering summer day, Crimea’s burly prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, stood in a black suit on a contested public beach in this resort town, once a famous retreat for artists like Anton Chekhov.
The prime minister, who was appointed by Russia President Vladimir Putin tried to speak over the din created by about 100 jostling residents all yelling at him simultaneously.
Seventeen months after Putin deployed Special Forces troops to seize Crimea from Ukraine, prompting the deepest confrontation with the West since the Cold War, life on the Black Sea peninsula remains in disarray.
Freedoms of speech and assembly …read more
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
