Putin’s argument on Crimea was equally specious. When Catherine’s imperial generals conquered Crimea, it was a longtime home to Crimean Tartars. They formed more than 80 percent of the population, together with Cossacks. The indigenous Muslim Tartars—deported by Stalin and persecuted by Putin—were written out of the picture. It was a classic example of what academic Andrew Wilson, writing for the London think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), called “settler colonialism.”
