I think the comment by /u/WhatWeOnlyFantasize elegently summarizes the overwhelming support for Russia in Crimea.

I know this is Reddit thoughcrime and will result in the tired "Putinshill" ad hominem fallacy for posting facts which are incongruent with the approved narrative here, but the facts don't support your rhetoric: 1) Major US research firm Pew Polls: "Crimean residents are almost universally positive toward Russia. At least nine-in-ten have confidence in Putin (93%) and say Russia is playing a positive role in Crimea (92%). " 2) "The latest survey in Ukraine by the Pew Research Center, reveals 91% of Crimeans believe the recent referendum was free and fair and only 4% believe Ukraine is correct in not recognising the referendum results. " LITERALLY the people who took the referendum themselves don't feel that they were forced in any way and that it was fair and free. 3) The violent coup in Kiev replaced the government that Crimeans voted for with one that Crimeans overwhelmingly voted against in the 2010 elections.. This all started out of that, it wasn't Russia randomly deciding to "invade" Crimea. Russia had 17,000 troops station in Crimea for years now as part of the Black Sea Treaty: "The Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet was a treaty signed between Russia and Ukraine on 28 May 1997 whereby the two countries established two independent national fleets, and divided armaments and bases between them. The treaty also allowed Russia to maintain up to 25,000 troops, 24 artillery systems, 132 armored vehicles, and 22 military planes on the Crimean peninsula." 4) Polls by Ukrainian research agencies find that one year later, Crimeans continue to prefer Russia: "Eighty-two percent of those polled said they fully supported Crimea's inclusion in Russia, and another 11 percent expressed partial support. Only 4 percent spoke out against it." 5) Even anti-Russian sources show that Crimeans want to be part of Russia. Here is poll from 2008 done by Ukrainian think tank, who openly opposes Crimea succession and don't want Crimea joining Russia: Looking at different ethnic groups in Crimea, secession of Crimea from Ukraine and joining Russia are supported by the overwhelming majority (75.9%) of Russians and a majority (55.2%) of Ukrainians. http://www.razumkov.org.ua/eng/files/category_journal/NSD104_eng_2.pdf[1] 6) Ukrainian census 2011: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/UkraineNativeLanguagesCensus2001detailed-en.png 7) According to the Washington Post, the overwhelming majority of Crimeans do not want to be part of EU and prefer to be with Russia 8) BBC: About 93% of Crimean voters have backed joining Russia and seceding from Ukraine 9) There is a long history of Crimea trying to secede from Ukraine. For example, in 1994, Crimea tried to secede, but was strong armed by the Ukrainian government into staying against their wishes. The next year they deposed the President of Crimea for talking about secession, removed the Crimean government and tore up the Crimean constitution and forced the Kiev rule on them. Effectively, Crimeans voted overwhelmingly for independence from Kiev in 1994, Kiev annexed it in 1995 and then passed laws without any input from Crimea to ensure it remained as part of "Ukraine" from then onwards. On 20 January 1991, Crimea regained its status as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. This was many months before Ukraine declared its own independence on 24th August 1991. In February 1992, it renamed itself as the "Republic of Crimea". On 5th May 1992, Crimea declared itself "Independent" pending the outcome of a referendum to be held in August 1992. On 15th May 1992, the Ukrainian parliament declared the declaration of independence to be illegal and gave Crimea one week to cancel the referendum. In June 1992, both sides reached a compromise and it was given the status of "Autonomous Republic". In May 1994, the then President of Crimea re-opened the Crimean referendum, and contrary to the wishes of Kiev who tried to stop it going ahead, voters voted in favor of the following 1: 78.4% voted in favour of Crimean Independence that had relations with Ukraine on the basis of a set of treaties. 2: 82.8% voted in favour of dual Russian/Ukrainian citizenship. 3: 77.9% voted in favor of Presidential Decrees not covered in the May 1991 constitution being made law. Following these results, in March 1995, Kiev's Parliament tore up Crimea's constitution and permanently removed the post of "President of Crimea" and from June to September it was governed under a Presidential Decree from the Ukrainian President. In October 1995, Crimea wrote a new constitution which wasn't recognised by Ukraine until 1996 following amendments which ruled that Crimea's constitution must be approved by Kiev. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Autonomous_Republic_of_Crimea Funnily enough, the West didn't bellyache about Crimea's massive vote in 1994 or Kiev's forceful domination of it in 1995.