On March 1, Putin asked the upper house of the Russian parliament to authorize the use of force beyond the country’s borders—and got its unanimous approval the same day. The armed men were already in Crimea by then. The streets of Crimea filled with billboards showing a swastika and barbed wire on the left and a Russian flag on the right, with the caption, “On March 16, we will be choosing between this and this.” That day, at a hastily convened referendum, 96.77 percent of Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation.
