Among Russia’s biggest headaches is the widespread condemnation of its annexation of Crimea in March of 2014. Vladimir Putin still smarts from the November 2016 International Criminal Court (ICC) finding that “there exists a sensible or reasonable justification for a belief that a crime [my italics] falling within the jurisdiction of the Court ‘has been or is being committed’” within the Crimean and Donbas territories of Ukraine. Upon issuance of this finding, an irate Russia withdrew from the ICC. Sanctions continue to threaten persons and companies associated with the Crimean takeover. United Nations investigators have documented evidence of arbitrary detentions, torture, abductions, and political murder in occupied Crimea.
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Paul Roderick Gregory: How Russia is playing Catalonia to get a reprieve on Crimea
People shout slogans as they wave Catalan pro-independence 'Estelada' flags during a protest in Barcelona on Oct. 2, a day after hundreds were injured in a police crackdown during Catalonia's banned independence referendum.
