Four years ago, on 18 March 2014, Russia took the final step to illegally occupy Crimea, a part of Ukraine's sovereign territory that Russia had recognised as such in several international treaties.
The Russian takeover comprised a series of equally illegal actions: from using disguised Russian elite troops to the hasty organisation – in breach of Ukrainian and international law – of an illegitimate "referendum".
President Putin initially claimed that those troops had no associa...
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Matthew is EUobserver's Opinion Editor. He joined EUobserver in June 2018. Previously he worked as a reporter for The Guardian in London, and as editor for AFP in Paris and DPA in Berlin.