Things can be more complicated than that.

Crimea is a special situation. I won't reiterate its complex history here since there is plenty of written here, but I'd like to point out that one could have a view where Crimea is Russian and yet decry the invasion of Ukraine as illegitimate.

If anything for practical reasons: only 7% of its population is Ukrainian. It would be very a source of continuous ethnic tensions.

Hard Russian nationalism is much more than that

Such people claim that the entirety of Ukraine is just Russia and they mock them for otherwise being Polish. This narrative is an explicit outcome of an Imperial mindset

So the 2014 annexation was OK but the 2022 invasion not?

My personal opinion is that the 2014 annexation wasn't ok but the reason wasn't that Crimea is not Russian but because I value the stability and peace produced by the idea that we shouldn't change borders through force.

But that's the reason why using this "who does Crimea _belong to_" framing of the question is misleading. You will find many people who will say Russia and yet not necessarily subscribe to the imperialistic stance that Russia is employing.

Of course many many Russians think that "Ukrainians are "Little Russians" at best." But they are easily revealed for what they are when you ask them litteraly what they think about Ukrainians and you don't have to bring up the crimean question.

I posit that the crimean question will also unnecessarily put in the same cohort all those people who do recognize the distinct culture of Ukraine and their right of self determination but also consider the past and present situation of crimea to be more nuanced.

EDIT: some Russians may recognize that Ukrainians have right to self determination but they may also recognize that today Crimea is populated by a vast majority of Russians and thus there giving that land back to Ukraine would lead to further bloodshed. And yes I have heard actual Russians having that position (I'm not Russian fwiw)

ALL Russians cheered when they annexed Crimea, and NONE of them want to give it back to Ukraine, because NONE of them believe it belongs to Ukraine, counter to international agreement.

You might think this is normal, I don't. And because of that, I don't agree with statements like "it's not the Russian people, only the Russian government".

You didn't mention any Russian that sees it differently, and you confirm everything what I say. Except for the fact that you think it's normal and I don't.

Edit: What I said above is not correct and I apologize for that. After the annexation of Crimea, there was a protest in Russia with thousands of protesters. Some prominent politicians also openly opposed it.

I assume the Russians with whom I have talked to and don't think that forceful annexation was a good thing don't count under your "NONE" description.

Perhaps it's because they are few of them (fair enough mine is just personal experience, not a poll)

Or perhaps it's because you consider everybody who believes that Crimea is now populated mostly by Russians (and thinks that giving it back now will create more trouble than solve) as people who CHEERED the annexation.

I don't think it logically follows.

But I understand your feeling since there are so many people (even outside of Russia) that literally cheer for Russia getting their empire back. Unfortunate their noise surpasses any ability to have a nuanced conversation about this.

I wished humanity headed towards a peaceful resolution of conflicts where people can seek self determination and autonomy (basque, Catalan, Kurds, Palestinians, ...) instead of resolving such issues with invasion and pandering to imperialistic visions

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of regions and countries which have been transferred to a foreign power through "international agreement". Probably even your own birthplace at one time or another in history. And those agreements almost never has anything to do with what is right or justified, or taking into account the self-determination of the population.

So I don't understand how anybody can support "international agreement" by default. I certainly don't. Regarding Crimea I don't have an opinion, because I don't live there.

Germany was split into two by "international agreement", just as an example.

> say Russia and yet not necessarily subscribe to the imperialistic stance

Contradiction right there

I don't understand. Of course Crimea was acquired by the Russian empire by force, from other people who had it in turn acquired by force and so on. But none of those were Ukrainians.

Kruschcev transferred the crimean oblast as a symbolic gesture.

Pointing this fact out does not contradict one's desire to not have Russia acquire more territory and behave in an imperialistic manner today

By your logic if a father made love to a mother as a symbolic gesture and didn't intend to have a kid, then it's totally ok to murder the kid 40 years later. Just restoring historical justice, right?

I have a good dozen of friends from Crimea despite visiting Crimea just a few times as a little kid – thousands of young people were forced out of their homes.

The russian logic is very perverted, yet completely predictable. If you are a national minority (even if your 7% claim was true) surrounded by russians, you should leave, and all your belongings should be redistributed among russians. But if you are a russian minority surrounded by different nations, then everyone around you should learn russian language, respect russian culture, otherwise russian tanks will come. Or maybe they won't, but only for the sake of global stability (otherwise it's justified)

Who does Karelia belong to?

The only crime regarding Crimea at around that time was Tatar genocide performed by yet another non-elected leader so much beloved and supported by russians.