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→Unconstitutional impeachment
Two days later Ukraine's parliament dismissed five judges of the Constitutional Court for allegedly violating their oaths, who were then investigated for alleged malpractice.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/rada-dismisses-constitutional-court-judges-appointed-from-its-quota-337523.html |title=Rada dismisses Constitutional Court judges appointed from its quota |work=Kyiv Post |date=24 February 2014 |access-date=}}</ref>
Two days later Ukraine's parliament dismissed five judges of the Constitutional Court for allegedly violating their oaths, who were then investigated for alleged malpractice.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/rada-dismisses-constitutional-court-judges-appointed-from-its-quota-337523.html |title=Rada dismisses Constitutional Court judges appointed from its quota |work=Kyiv Post |date=24 February 2014 |access-date=}}</ref>
===Crimean annexation===
{{See also|Crimean Annexation}}
The NATO organization was founded on the solitary premise of collective security to [[Containment|contain Soviet expansion in Europe]]. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, many questioned the need for it's continued existence against an enemy that no longer existed. Several former Soviet satellite states (East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Czech and Slovak Republics) as well as newly independent former Soviet Republics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine) wanted EU membership, which of coarse would ultimately mean NATO membership, as well (military alliances exist to protect economic alliances). Russia under [[Boris Yeltsin]] wanted EU and NATO membership. The NATO powers that be made clear they had no interest in going out of business, and Russia argued how unfair it was that they should dissolve their defense alliance (the [[Warsaw Pact]]) and be thrust into another arms race against a growing NATO, which was swallowing up many of Russia's former military allies.
But the case of Ukraine was unique. Ukrainian nationalists wanted out of the Russian orbit. But some the territories of Ukraine are inhabited by a significant majority of ethnic Russians, too, who wanted to maintain close ties to Russia. The official US State Department's position under President [[George Herbert Walker Bush]] at the time was that the Ukraine should remain a sovereign republic within the Russian Federation. Bush argued as much in a speech written by [[Condoleezza Rice]] to the Ukrainian parliament. But the Clinton's took over in early 1993, and caved in to Ukrainian [[nationalist]]s. In exchange for US recognition of a Ukraine independent of the Russian Federation, Ukraine would give up its nuclear stockpile from the Soviet era, and the US would guarantee Ukraine's security, should the Russians ever invade. The agreement reeked a lot like the assurances Great Britain and France gave Poland at the [[Treaty of Versailles]] in 1919 that bound them to war with [[Hitler]] in 1939 when Hitler invaded [[Poland]].
Like the Treaty of Versailles, the [[American foreign policy#1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances|1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances]] negotiated by [[Bill Clinton]] lasted exactly 20 years. Unlike Great Britain and France who went to war with [[Nazi Germany]] when the agreement was violated, [[Barack Obama]] broke the pledge that Clinton had committed the United States to. US/Russian relations have deteriorated ever since. And converting NATO from a purely defensive alliance based on the idea of collective security to a military machine waging aggressive wars - as it had done in Libya - fulfilled many people's worst nightmare. No longer can negotiation and diplomacy be used to keep the peace, as the Obama administration had thrown American promises on the dunghill. Gaddafi ceased terrorism, gave up his WMD, and became an ally, all predicated on accepting American promises, only to be brutally murdered at the hands of Hillary Rodham Clinton and NATO. Ukraine had given up its Soviet-era nuclear stockpile based on assurances given by Bill Clinton, ignored by Barack Obama. Military force now is the only option remaining to remove nuclear weapons from the hands of [[Kim Jong-un]].
Since the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] in 1942 it should be clear to anyone,<ref>https://youtu.be/RC4fE6sm4r8</ref> Russia will never allow an aggressive and hostile military force, such as NATO transformed itself into in the Obama era, to ally itself or encamp within the Ukraine.
[[File:Crimea Referendum.PNG|right|350px|thumb|Billboard advertising the March 16, 2014 Crimean referendum to apply for admission to the Russian Federation.]]
On February 27, 2014 Russian soldiers landed in [[Crimea]].<ref>https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/02/27/283481587/crimea-a-gift-to-ukraine-becomes-a-political-flash-point</ref> Because some of the people currently living in Crimea are ethinic Russians, there was a dispute whether Crimea belongs to Ukraine or to Russia.<ref>https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-warns-russia-over-military-moves-crimea</ref> On March 11, 2014, Crimea declared its independence from Ukraine.<ref>https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2578160/Ukraines-fugitive-president-blasts-bandit-regime-says-country-heading-civil-war.html</ref> The Crimean Peninsula—82% of whose households speak Russian, and only 2% mainly Ukrainian—held a plebiscite on March 16, 2014 on whether or not they should join Russia, or remain under the new Ukrainian government. The Pro-Russia camp won with 95% of the vote. The UN General Assembly, led by the US, voted to ignore the referendum results on the grounds that it was contrary to Ukraine’s constitution. This same constitution had been set aside to oust [[President Yanukovych]] a month earlier.<ref>https://fair.org/home/what-you-should-really-know-about-ukraine/</ref>
In response to the annexation, Sen. John McCain introduced the [[Magnitsky Act]] granting the president power to impose sanctions against persons anywhere in the world at his discretion. On March 6, 2015 the German government expressed concern over Washington warhawks aggressive stance toward resolving crisis in Ukraine, and accused Obama's NATO commander of using false data to inflate and exaggerate size of "Russian threat".<ref>http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/germany-concerned-about-aggressive-nato-stance-on-ukraine-a-1022193.html</ref>
===Ukrainian collusion: 2016===
===Ukrainian collusion: 2016===