The subject was Georgia - remember...or is dementia setting in or is it just plain old dishonesty? No one said the Berkut had hunting riffles. The Berkut was a Ukrainian police unit, which is now under Russian control along with the rest of the country. Your misrepresentation of the Berkut as a militia is either gross ignorance or blatant dishonesty.
Complete confusion on your side. The subject of this thread is Syria. Your anti-Russian attacks cover a lot of the usual memes of the anti-Russian NATO propaganda, including Georgia (where you have stultified yourself by claiming they had no US weapons) and Ukraine, where you appear unable to identify Nazis even among the completely open Bandera admirers. Berkut was and is a Ukrainian police unit, and the part of it located in Crimea immediately switched sides after the Nazi coup and supported the Crimean antimaidan separatists. This has given the Crimean antimaidan forces also all the weapons under control of Berkut. There have been more sources of weapons, namely all the other Crimean parts of the Ukrainian army and police which supported the government of Crimea instead of the Kiev Nazis and which followed the order of the Crimean government that they had to claim their allegiance to the government of Crimea instead of the Kiev junta.
And there were a lot of local people who created local militias to defend Crimea against the Bandera Nazi hordes. These had whatever they were able to get as weapons, from hunting weapons to weapons taken illegally from various other sources, like the Berkut and other pro-Russian police and army sources. So, of course, Berkut is not a militia, but the guys from Berkut have taken their weapons and participated in these militias, supporting them with all the weapons they were able to control.
the Crimean prime minister publicly encouraged resistance to Russia's invasion. The next day, Russian armed troops (i.e. Putin's little green men) by force of arms took over the Crimean parliament and replaced the Crimean prime minister with their stooge, a man who only gathered 4 percent of the vote in Crimea's last free election.
Nonsense, because there was no Russian invasion. Axjonow was elected democratically by the Crimean parliament. Which was, indeed, protected against the danger of violent maidan forces by polite men in green. There was no Russian force necessary for this, because the majority there was an overwhelming pro-Russian one, the remains of the former Yanukovych party, which, according to you, was Putin's man. But the Yanukovych guys have been discredited not only in Kiev, but also on Crimea itself, so these parliamentarians naturally switched sides to a non-discredited but of course pro-Russian politician. Which was Axjonow.
Yanukovych is in Russia, but plays no politicial role - he was allowed to come to Russia for legal reasons - as the legal president of the Ukraine, he could, and did, legitimate the actions of the Russian army in Crimea as well as other parts of the Ukraine.
Except, Ukraine had no "local militias" in Crimea.
These there local self-defense militias, which have formed based on the local antimaidan movements and which have been founded immediately after the Kiev coup.
And the the people who reported these incidents were UN and European observers, and journalists, Putin's little green men were clearly identifiable as such because they were not wearing any identifying insignia.
ROTFLBTC. I tell you a secret: The polite men in gree were easily distinguishable from the militias, but not because they were not wearing any identifying insignia - the militias didn't too.
The fact is UN and OSCE observers along with journalists were harassed and threatened by Russian troops, and Russia refused to allow credible observers to observe the "referendum", even going so far as to fire shots to warn them off.
Again, no, the Russian speznas guys were named "polite men in green", because they were special forces with clear focus on their jobs, which was to protect a few buildings of central importance, and they were, that's why, extremely polite, with the clear aim to avoid any unnecessary escalations. Quite different from the militias, which were simply local self-defense guys without any appropriate professional education (except participation in the military long ago in the past). These guys have, of course, harassed anybody who looked or behaved like a Bandera-fan. And they have stopped at the border everybody who looked suspect to them. Of course, without any professional education about how to behave at a border, because there was no border control before, they have created one out of nothing to defend their homes from the Bandera Nazi hordes.
But even so, given that there were only two options, and not being annexed by Mother Russia wasn't one of them in and of itself makes the referendum illegitimate.
Nonsense. At the time of the referendum, the separation from the Ukraine had been already declared. In this sense, the other option was simply the status quo - independence based on the constitution of 1992, that means, no Russian annexion.
And then there is the matter where a number of Russians (i.e. non Crimeans) were allowed to vote. That isn't a legitimate referendum comrade.
A minor problem, it certainly hasn't changed the result. The Iowa results are, in this sense, much more suspect. I have heard about 6 coin tosses all of which Hitlary won, LOL.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/02/john-v-walsh/hillary-rig-results-iowa/
Hmm....so you think that a parliament which doesn't have armed Russian troops threatening them and telling them how and what to do isn't free?
No, I know that there was no such Crimean parliament which has made what you claimed. There was only one, the democratically elected pro-Russian one, and it has, after the demise of the former governor, elected a new one.
Because a day before this there has been a violent demonstration (some pro-maidan demonstrators fighting against antimaidan demonstrators) before the building, the building itself was protected by some obviously professional guys. Their job was to control those who enter the parliament if the have the right to do this, and to prevent a storm of the parliament by demonstrators, which was a real danger in these days, and has happened in many Ukrainian towns. They have done this job.
So in your view a parliament with an armed Russian troop presence telling parliamentarians what to do and when to do it is a "free" parliament?
That they have done such things is a NATO propaganda claim. And there was no need to do this. Because anyway the parliament was in its majority pro-Russian - according to your idea that Yanukovich was Putin's man, all they were already Putin's parliamentarians.
That doesn't make the Ukrainian government Nazi's as you have repeatedly alleged.
LOL. Imagine the German Bundestag makes Hitler's birthday an official holiday, and Merkel uses the "Heil Hitler" greeting even in official speeches. This would not make the German government Nazi's?
Mother Russia has similar parties and people who openly admire Hitler, advocate Nazism and greet each other with sieg heil, so if you want to be intellectually honest, you have to also say Mother Russia is ruled by Nazi's.
Why? They are not even in the parliament. Instead of having a majority there, which allows the the Ukrainian Nazis to make the founding day of the UPA (the Ukrainian SS, which has killed a lot of Russians, Poles and Jews) an official holiday.
The existence of Nazis means nothing. Their political power is what matters.
the government in Ukraine and Georgia aren't Nazi governments as you have asserted.
I have not named the Georgian government Nazi, they have been simply American puppets after their "revolution of Roses". And the Georgians themself have managed it to get rid of this criminal Saakashvili. Which now makes American policy in Odessa. The Ukrainian government is openly Nazi, simply judging by their own identification with Bandera as their national hero.