Russian Crimean Bridge to History Update

 Russia's long history in the Crimea followed that of the decadent Roman Empire and invasions of Huns, Goths and Khazars to the Peninsula that had previously experienced Greek and Roman settlements. In 988 Keivan Rus leader Prince Sviatoslav I captured in and made it part of Rus. Other European entities as well as Mongols have sought to take the Crimea away from Russia ever since.

 Crimea was formerly annexed again by Russia in 1773 following Cossack and other invasions into the decadent Khanates of Muslomified Tartars. Until the end of the Russian Empire in 1917 the Crimean Peninsula remained Russian.

 After the Russian Civil war the Crimea became part of the Soviet Union. The Red Army lost 170,000 soldiers defending Sevastopol in WW II before the Nazi Germans took it, perhaps with some help from Nazi sympathizing Ukrainians. Following the Nazi defeat the Soviet Union retook it an it remained Russian until 1991. In the interregnum following the breakup of the Soviet Union the Yeltsin Government had Ukraine and Crimea filched away by the Bill Clinton administration during the transition C.I.S. phase of the post-soviet Union. Recovering post Soviet Russia took control of the Crimea again during the Putin administration. The new Crimean bridge is a major upgrade in the status of the Peninsula.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/world/europe/putin-russia-crimea-bridge.html