title: The battle of ontological narratives: Russia and the annexation of Crimea1
abstract: In 2014, the Crimean electoral commission announced that approximately 83% of registered Crimean voters had cast their ballots and, of those, 95% voted to separate from Ukraine and unite with Russia (“Crimea Referendum: Voters ‘Back Russia Union,’” BBC News, March 16, 2014). The result might suggest a rigged election, and indeed, analysts in some ways saw it as such. The vote was cast during Russia’s occupation of the peninsula and was largely boycotted by Crimea’s substantial ethnic minorities: