Ukraine Gov. Conflict 2014

The Crimean Khanate, a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, was conquered by the Russian Empire in 1783.[52] Following its incorporation into the Russian Empire, Crimea became the "heart of Russian Romanticism" and the region continued to attract vacationers well after the Russian Empire was replaced by the Soviet Union.[53] Crimea had autonomy within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic as the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from 1921 until 1945, when Joseph Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars, and abolished Crimean autonomy.[54] In 1954, the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev[55] transferred the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR, in a "symbolic gesture" that seemed insignificant at the time, since both republics were a part of the Soviet Union.[56][57][58] Crimea's pre-1945 autonomy was re-established with the Crimean sovereignty referendum in 1991, the final year of the Soviet Union's existence.[59]
The Autonomous Republic of Crimea has been part of an independent Ukraine since 1991, when the former constituent Republics of the Soviet Union became independent states. In 1992, the Crimean Parliament voted to hold a referendum to declare independence, while the Russian Parliament voted to void the cession of Crimea to Ukraine.[60][61] In 1994, Russian nationalist Yuri Meshkov won the 1994 Crimean presidential election and organized a referendum on Crimea's status.[62][63] Later in that same year, Crimea's legal status as part of Ukraine was recognized by Russia, which pledged to uphold the territorial integrity of Ukraine in the Budapest memorandum signed in 1994. This treaty (or "executive agreement" for purposes of US law), was also signed by the United States, United Kingdom, and France.[64][65] However Ukraine revoked the Crimean constitution and abolished the office of Crimean President in 1995.[66] Crimea would gain a new constitution in 1998 that granted the Crimean parliament lesser powers than the previous