“Why do the Russians need Crimea, they already have Kensington and Chelsea…” the British are joking and they are right. Crimea has been theirs for a long time – the military have a contract for another 20 years.

I just wonder when they will demand Alaska too – it was sold to the USA for 100 years and the government of Lenin argued on this action, stating it was illegitimate.

Ukraine, where Russia starts from is not too familiar to the USA, even less the Crimean Peninsula. Up until recently they thought Crimea was one of the female characters of Tyler Perry – an actor, screenwriter, director and producer, who had his 2005 Hollywood breakthrough with the Diary of a Mad Black Woman movie – one can check that with the Colbert Report comedy show.

Few Bulgarians know that Greeks, Romans, Mongols, Byzantines, Turks and others have crossed the Crimean Peninsula over the centuries. Nowadays the fight on the spot is between South Stream and the Eastern Partnership.

The Supreme Council of Crimea decided on March 6 that the Autonomous Republic would join the Russian Federation. The referendum on the issue has been appointed for March 16. Neither the Ukrainian government, nor the EU recognize its legitimacy, but this doesn’t matter that much. However, there is one significant question – what happens afterwards?

Forbes has already written on the global consequences of an eventual Russian invasion. Actually this remains vague, since no one can attack himself.

It looks like the Russian interference has its economic background. Control over Crimea means control over almost the whole Black Sea aquatory and the oil gas shelf of Ukraine, along with strategic ports and communications.

Russia eases its situation with the implementation of South Stream. Some analysts say that the destabilization of Ukraine and the shortening of the project’s route with the Crimean territory make it 5 times cheaper and more attractive to Europe. The land segment of the gas pipeline will remove the energy dependence of Crimea on Kiev.

At the same time the Black Sea segment has been researched for a long time and all the preparatory work has been done. The change of the route will require new researches that are not cheap at all.

Environmentalists on the other hand might get infuriated by the land works due to the violation of the ecosystems in the area. This all makes the change of South Stream’s route look like a slightly reasonable motivation for the geopolitical invasion of Russia.

The Eastern Partnership programme has been looking ever since its establishment towards the formation of EU and US-oriented countries along the western and southwestern Russian borders. That is why I clashed today Eastern Partnership and South Stream – both projects are fighting within their interests for the conquering of the post-Soviet space. Both projects have their armies too and this causes our concern, when looking at Russia’s suburbs. I will write on that in Part 2 of the Battle on Crimea.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev