A survey of Crimean residents that was conducted on April 11, 2011, showed that 71.3 percent of respondents considered Ukraine their homeland. This was up from the 2008 rating of 32 percent.
However, even at 71.3 percent, it was still lower than the average of 93 percent across Ukraine.
The survey was conducted on February 21 through March 14 in Crimea and Sevastopol by the Razumkov Center and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. The margin of error did not exceed 2.3 percent. The national survey was conducted on March 1-10 and its margin of error did not exceed 2.3 percent. It was reported that 2,001 people were polled in the study.
Crimeans also differed from mainland Ukraine on attitudes toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), with 51 percent considering the alliance a threat, while across the rest of Ukraine the rate was 20.6 percent.
The largest threat, according to 59 percent of Crimeans, was from international terrorism. And 17.9 percent believed that a confrontation was likely between the regions of Ukraine, while 13 percent said the threat was from the United States and Ukrainian authorities.
The threat of acute conflict declined by more than half, from 24.4 percent to 10.2 percent, from 2008 to 2011.
A year prior to the survey results, on April 21, 2010, President Viktor Yanukovych signed a bilateral agreement with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Kharkiv. Mr. Yanukovych promoted that in the next 10 years, Ukraine would get nearly $40 billion in investments from Russia that would aid social needs, investment projects, and financing and modernization of the armed forces of Ukraine. Critics called the agreement flawed in extending the basing agreement of the Russian Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol for an additional 25 years. The previous lease was set to expire in 2017. In return, Ukraine got a “discount” on gas imported from Russia that was already marked up above market price.
Source: “Crimeans consider Ukraine their homeland,” Ukrinform, The Ukrainian Weekly, April 24, 2011.