ABSTRACT
The Crimean conundrum is a unique European ethnic conflict between Ukraine and Russia for two reasons: first, the presence of an additional domestic party, the Tatars, and secondly, with the exception of the former Yugoslavia, it is Europe's only ethnic conflict that includes a territorial claim by a neighbour. This chapter on the Crimea is divided into six parts. The first provides a brief historical introduction to the Russian-Crimean-Ukrainian triangle; the second discusses legal and constitutional asymmetries, while the third profiles the main political actors in the Ukrainian Crimean relationship. The fourth discusses the resymmetrisation of the Ukrainian Crimean relationship in the second half of the 1990s following the marginalisation of Russian separatists. The fifth surveys the influence of different political forces in elections to the Ukrainian and Crimean Parliaments. Finally, it analyses external influences on domestic resymmetrisation strategies.
