We toured the rooms of this beautiful and ornate mansion, including the room where the final agreements of the Yalta Conference were signed, where FDR stayed, the courtyard where the famous photo of Churchill, FDR, and Stalin was shot, the piano room with preserved photos of Nicholas II's family, and the balcony from which the view of the Crimean coast is breathtaking.
The next day, we took another long bus ride, this time to Sevastopol, where the Russian naval fleet has been based since Catherine the Great's reign in the 18th century. During the Soviet era, Premier Nikita Khrushchev -- who was Ukrainian -- decided to move Crimea from Russian administration and give it as a gift to Ukraine. Since both Russia and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union at the time, the possible future consequences of such a decision were not considered. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Crimea remained in Ukraine as an autonomous region while Russia kept its naval base there as part of a legal agreement (lease) with the Ukrainian government.
Not only is Sevastopol Russia's only warm water port, it is the place where the Soviet army blocked the Nazi advance for 8 months during WWII, representing a turning point in which the German army lost 2/3 of its capacity. By the time it was over, around 90% of the city had been devastated with approximately 2300 residents remaining as the rest had been killed or evacuated. FDR reportedly was moved to comment at the Yalta Conference on the devastation of Sevastopol.
It becomes clear after touring the area and talking to residents here why Russians in both Crimea and continental Russia view any possibility of a NATO flag flying over Sevastopol as something close to sacriligious.
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