SIMFEROPOL, UKRAINE ¨C Waving the Russian flag and chanting ¡°Russia! Russia!¡± protesters in Crimea have become the last major bastion of resistance to Ukraine¡¯s new rulers.
President Viktor Yanukovych¡¯s overthrow Saturday has been accepted across the vast country, even in his power base in the Russian-speaking regions of the east. But Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula attached to the rest of Ukraine by just a narrow strip of land, is alone so far in challenging the new order.
As the only Ukrainian region with an ethnic Russian majority, and a home to Russia¡¯s Black Sea Fleet, the strategically important territory is now also the focus of a battle between Russia and the West over the future of Ukraine.
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