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The election win of Sebastian Pinera in Chile marks a shift in Latin America away from left parties. Economic conditions improved initially with the left parties in Brazil, Chile and Argentina, following currency crises and debt problems. The commodities boom helped the left party governments finance social programs which increased their popularity. The middle class also benefited with increased consumer spending and a growing economy. All this changed as the commodities boom collapsed and state finances were stretched thin in Brazil and Argentina. Corruption scandals, and decline in economic growth exposed serious problems in delivery of services, infrastructure and other areas which had been neglected. Voters decided to turn to alternatives and parties from centre right with Macri in Argentina and Pinera in Chile as a consequence.   The striking fact is that instead of shifting to the right leaders of the centre right, Macri in Argentina and Pinera in Chile have decided it is best to keep some of the best initiatives and achievements of the previous governments that have created a broader middle class in Chile and Argentina. Pinera says he will preserve some of Bachelet's initiatives in bringing broader access to education and health care. In this sense Latin America has matured so that the sharp conflicts have been set aside to set a more conciliatory tone and work together. Compared to Chile and Argentina Brazil is different in that corruption scandals affect most parties and there is a general loss of confidence in Congress and politicians across the spectrum. Brazil is looking at a situation in which a whole generation of politicians would have to give way to a new generation for the public to gain a renewal of confidence- so deep is the loss of confidence.  ...

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JP Morgan Chase Treasurer, Joseph Bonocore, left the bank in October 2011, and his replacement took office in March 2012. Bonocore had served as chief risk officer of the Chief Investment Office for 11 years and was intimately familiar with its operations. The executive in charge of risk management at the Chief Investment Office had little risk management experience. Mr. Goldman was named chief risk officer in February 2012. His brother in law Barry Zubrow had previously served as chief risk officer of the bank for many years. In January 2012, Zubrow took the position of head of corporate regulatory affairs. Goldman had spent most of his years as a trader starting at Salomon Brothers in 1980's He later worked at Credit Suisse and Cantor Fitzgerald. He left Cantor after his unit incurred trading losses. In February 2012, Goldman, Zubrow and Ms Drew met with officers of the Federal Reserve arguing in favor of less regulation on proprietary trading, including the Volcker Rule, according to Fed documents....

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Hillary Clinton returns on September 15, 2016, to the campaign trail after 3 days of rest to recover from pneumonia. She chose to speak at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, with N. Carolina  now considered a state that is winnable, and with a new focus on young people on campuses where she wants to regain her once large lead in the summer. She said that the break had given her time to reflect on what it is she represents. "The campaign trail doesn't really encourage reflection and its important to sit with your thoughts every now and then. It helped me reconnect with what this campaign is all about." Adding that it was about quality health care, financial security, clean water and other critical needs of people.

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The Indian Supreme Court on July 27 upholds the core amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)  which gives the enforcement authority, the Enforcement Directorate ED, the powers to make summons, arrest, and other powers to enforce the law. The Supreme Court called the PMLA a law against "the scourge of money laundering." After independence in 1947 some of the problems that Mohandas Gandhi witnessed in the early Congress party ministries allowed by the British in the 1930's became a part of the political fabric as accepted ways of operating. It is only in the last decade that these practices have come to be seen as inconsistent with the development of the country and ones that would have been rejected outright by Mohandas Gandhi as inconsistent and repelling to his India of Hind Swaraj. In a 545 page judgement the Special Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkarm Dinesh Maheshwari, and CT Ravikumar, stated that- "This is a sui generis (unique) legislation... The Parliament enacted the Act as a result of the international commitment to sternly deal with the menace of money laundering of proceeds of crime having transnational consequences." Mohandas Gandhi would be appalled by how elected ministries operated in the India that followed in the first decades after 1947. Not only were some of the basic principles of honest government being violated, it was being done with such impunity that over time it crept into the culture of how things operated in India, destroying any confidence the people had in the responsibilities of government and its ability to deliver on those responsibilities. The Supreme Court has now taken up the task of restoring some of the integrity of Gandhi's Hind Swaraj with its statement that- "Money laundering is an offence against the sovereignty and integrity of the country." Money laundering the SC says is "every process and activity", direct or indirect dealing with the proceeds of crime. Justice Khanwilkar wrote: "Today, if one dives deep into the financial systems, anywhere in the world, it is seen that once a financial mastermind can integrate the illegitimate money into the bloodstream of an economy, it is almost indistinguishable. In fact the money can simply be wired abroad at one click of the mouse. It is well known that once this money leaves the country, it is almost impossible to get it back. Hence a simplistic argument  that Section 3 (offence of money laundering) should only find force once the money has been laundered, does not commend to us."   ...

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Forget Macron who is simply following French policy in the manner of De Gaulle, says Greg Ip in WSJ. The European Union has already set its policy to decouple its relationships in the supply chain from China, it just calls it something else -"de-risking." The EU he says is even tougher about this than the US. The EU's Leyen has stated: "The Chinese Communist Party's clear goal is a systemic change of the international order with China at its center... We need to ensure that our companies capital, expertise and knowledge are not used to enhance the military and intelligence capabilities of those who are also systemic rivals."  Mikko Huotari, the head of the Berlin based think tank Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies says that the US and the EU arrived at this through a process that went on in parallel. In fact the Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Denmark, and the Baltic countries came across this much earlier before Biden became president because of acrimonious relations with China. This is also true of countries in Eastern Europe such as Czech Republic.  Germany's position is based on finding a transitional period for decoupling to reduce the impact on its economy. And even China is aware of this situation and looking for a transitional period for decoupling. More significant is the attitude of companies says Greg Ip- companies such as Tesla, Apple and even Airbus that have continued investments in China with little change. And it is this that president Biden is seeking to change with US policy positions. Another less observed aspect of this is the realization of both the US and EU, that the clear and obvious mistake of overconcentration of the supply chain in China was made under Merkel and the Bush-Obama adminstrations. China too realizes that it would have been better off - less recrimination from workers in the US,  and less costly damaging growth that led to climate change- if there was not this much overconcentration of the supply chain in China. In short it benefitted no one, and happened simply because companies sought to take advantage of attractive offers of building in China offered by local governments in China with subsidies from the Chinese government, and the manufacturing capabilities that kept expanding in a virtuous circle as better infrastructure and logistics were built over time. It goes to show that unless governments are vigilant and aware of these risks the unintended can happen with different consequences including destabilizing the social fabric and the political structure of western democracies.  ...

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As Jacob Zuma resigns on Feb. 14, 2018, he leaves behind a South Africa in which the African National Congress is no longer the party that Nelson Mandela led in the struggle against Apartheid. South Africa's economy and governance has suffered during his 9 year rule. Corruption and mismanagement of the economy during this period led to the ANC forcing Zuma to resign a year and half before his term expires. He is replaced by Cyril Ramphosa, the deputy president of the ANC, an anti-apartheid leader who became a businessmen with ANC connections.  A black lower middle class failed to see the promises made by the ANC realized under successive ANC leaders Mbeki and Zuma. Police action against miners during a strike in 2012 led to the growing belief that the ANC leadership had distanced itself from its roots among ordinary South Africans. In recent years Zuma was unpopular in Gauteng province which includes the large cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Appointment of loyalists with little experience to senior positions in the cabinet and state companies including state utility Eskom and South African Airways, led to poor management and corruption. A case relating to use of $650,000 in public funds for upgrading a Zuma homestead led to a court case and impeachment proceedings. In the 2016 local elections the ANC lost in the major cities. leading to a sense that the ANC's rural vote could not ensure winning half the vote in the upcoming 2019 elections.   ...

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Ghannouchi of Tunisia's Ennahada Party puts forward ideas for a pathway that Islamists could follow to integrate into the political life of Middle Eastern countries- compromise, working together with non-Islamist parties for the common good, focussing on economic development, pursuing moderate Islamist ideas, bringing in those excluded from the political process thorough a new inclusiveness, and respecting the opposition. He sees the successful election in Tunisia in which Ennahada worked with the opposition parties to ensure a smooth transition, as a model for other countries and the Arab neighborhood. In 2014 another process of smooth transition after elections, and respect for the opposition, happened in Indonesia with the election of Jakarta governor Widodo to be the new president. This set another model of respect for democracy, fair elections, respect for the opposition, focus on economic development and inclusiveness, for Muslim countries in another part of the world. Pakistan is another Muslim country which is working to create a model in the presence of much violence from Pakistan Taliban, and interventions by the military in politics. Assistance from the U.S. helped Iraq make the transition under the Bush administration till it unraveled with the policies of the Obama administration. Libya had the potential to make the transition with continued western cooperation and support- a change in administrations in the U.S. and France resulted in policies not supportive of a stable transition. The whole process now needs to be fostered carefully by western liberal democracies. Here Ennahada's Ghannouchi tells the world about the lessons learned by Islamist parties themselves for pathways to embrace for more inclusive societies focussed on economic development and progress....

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The relationship between the southerner finance minister Schauble, and chancellor Merkel from the former East Germany is close, with each depending on the other. The Greece crisis following the referendum, with Schauble's patience with Greece exhausted by July 9, 2015, is reflected in the words he used in February 2015 about the Greece bailout program "ich over", his southwest German accent version of "it's over." In the German parliament Schauble has described the Tsipras government's behaviour as "lacking any rhyme or reason," and Schauble's popularity rating in the ruling CDU party is higher than Merkel in 2015, at over 70%. Schauble is a key CDU member in bringing the CDU's conservative members behind Merkel. This also limits the room Merkel now has in negotiating some last minute deal on Greece before the expiry of the deadline of July 12, 2015. Merkel has also set a higher bar for the negotiation, and a multiyear deal making reforms a high priority. When Schauble says there is no "rhyme or reason" for Syriza party Tsipras's behaviour he may be referring to the EU giving in to Greece's key demand for a change in the surplus targets for 2014-2016. As economists including Krugman point out the surplus is what Greece transfers to its creditors, and additionally with the EU making transfers of about 5% of GNP to Greece according to Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff, aside from cuts to pensions as part of pension reforms to return a unsustainable pension system to sustainability, the Greeks had most of what they could expect at this time. The debt is basically being rolled over with EU loans helping pay what is now very low interest, making it an issue that could be tackled at a later stage, say economists, even though Syriza made it an overriding issue in the referendum. Both Schauble, Merkel, and the rest of the CDU, and many Social Democrats including their leader Sigmar Gabriel, find Syriza Tsipras's moves incomprehensible and damaging relations. German experts now see the Eurozone and the Euro currency better off for the future with a Grexit, which also limits what Merkel and Germany can now do....

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Carol Bartz of Yahoo! talks about her experience as CEO with Autodesk for 14 years. She had no plans to take another CEO job in 2006, when she left Autodesk. She describes the job at Yahoo!, which she accepted, and the kinds of skills and experience that were most valuable. One was listening, as she had no idea what she would do in the new job. She did not have a plan for Yahoo! when she joined. Her philosophy is: its OK to fail, just do it fast and then move forward. This for her means making a decision, and not being afraid to do it because it may turn out to be the wrong one. She says its OK to learn on the job as she did at Autodesk. At Yahoo! she realized the value of experience - experience where her career was like a pyramid, not a ladder, the years of experience at Autodesk! serving as a foundation to build on. About her job at Yahoo! she says a lot of the people wern't talking to each other, and she saw her job as releasing some of the energies that were locked up.

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This editorial in the WSJ after Jeb Bush's opening campaign rally, says his candidacy livens up the field because he could act as someone who brings the country together compared to other candidates who would act as polarizing figures- Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and others. It gives high marks to Jeb Bush for his two terms as governor of Florida, and says the only governor coming close for the last 20 years is Mitch Daniels of Indiana. And it says the Republican party needs someone who can attract non-Republican voters if it is to win in 2016, which means taking states like Florida and swing states Colorado and Virginia. It cites as a plus Jeb Bush having a nearly 60% approval rating in Florida when he left office. On immigration and other issues affecting the middle class Jeb Bush has the potential to act as a unifying force in the country. His goal to achieve 4% growth, after the 2% growth in the Obama years, will be needed to improve the prospects for the middle class and working class people in the U.S., after the damaging effects of the 2008 financial crisis....

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U.S. president Obama calls Hillary Clinton more qualified for the job of president than himself or Bill Clinton, in his speech at the Democratic National Convention. He made a strong effort to rally the party behind Hillary Clinton in his speech, and thanked Bernie Sanders in a separate phone call for helping bring party unity. Vice President said that Trump did'nt have a clue to what would help the middle class, that the truly passionate supporter for the middle class was Hillary Clinton. Kaine and Bloomberg built on this theme.

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Gerald Seib, executive editor of of the WSJ, attributes the divisions in America both on the left and the right to a deep skepticism among people about the intentions of the U.S. political and financial establishment to conduct the country's affairs in a way that benefits all people. Both the traditional Democratic and Republican establishments, the Bush-Reagan, Clinton-Obama politicians and the financial community were seen as self-serving and looking after their own interests. The right of center supply side economics and the the tolerance for immigration levels of 30% rise in the last decade were discredited. A much larger recovery program was seen as needed from the deeply bruising effects of the financial crisis of 2008, started by the reckless financial establishment behaviours, than either the Reagan supply siders or the Obama people had understood or planned. This opened the way for Mr. Trump to take up the cause of ordinary Americans with a message of ambitious infrastructure development, confronting China's use of trade adversely affecting American workers, and slowing down immigration. And within the Democratic party the emergence of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders with programs for a wealth tax that would finance Medicare for All and college education supported by the federal government. Both the traditional Republicans under Bush and Democrats under Clinton Obama were seen not upto the task, after the 2008 financial and economic crisis created deeper scars than were imagined possible. The lack of effective policies under Bush or Obama simply aggravating the situation further. The culture wars have split Americans down the middle with a breakdown of the traditional American family and social structures creating deep anxieties in America. Obama's comments unsettled people in the heartland when he said that economic decline in the Rust Belt had made people there to "cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them."   The trillions of dollars spent in wars in Asia and the Middle East were seen by Mr. Trump as an enormous waste when much needed investment was deprived of attention at home. Mr. Trump hammered this point home till today it is well accepted across America.  Even as political divisions persist they are now on how to tackle the redevelopment and growth of the U.S. The new focus of agreement has shifted with agreement across the country that infrastructure development in the U.S. and defending workers rights to jobs and opportunities is the top priority. That trade relations need to be reshaped keeping this priority ever present in negotiations. As a result all parties could agree on infrastructure and the recently concluded agreement for trade with Mexico and Canada and phase 1 of negotiated agreement with China. In overseas affairs the U.S. under Trump seeks cost sharing with a 2% of GDP defense spending by other nations so that money can be diverted to use at home. In this sense the debate has already shifted in the U.S. and the UK to how to address the problems of uneven development and growth across the two countries and better allocation of scarce resources to needs at home. Which is for the U.S. a good thing in the middle of all the perception of divisions.      ...

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On major issues- her pledge to sign into law the Lankford Biden bipartisan Immigration and Border Bill after Trump blocked it in Congress for electoral advantage,  Cost of Living going up under Trump with his tariff plan, on abortion restrictions, the BBC says what Harris says is True.  Lyrarc has done its own fact check with effort for broad understanding of how her vision differs from Trump's- "As a prosecutor, when I had a case, I charged it not in the name of the victim. But in the name of. “The People.” For a simple reason. In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us." Every day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and said five words: “Kamala Harris, for the People.” And to be clear: My entire career, I have only had one client. The People This is True. It is also most revealing about this candidate regardless of sex, creed, color or race. It tells so much about this person and the influence that Gandhi and the struggles of India for independence have influenced her views on life through the influence of her mother and her grandfather who had great influence on her life and work- mother Shyamala Gopalan and P.V. Gopalan Shyamala's father a senior Indian Civil Service head for India's Department of Labor 1954 who lived and worked with the ideas an ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. On Immigration she makes a pledge to sign the Lankford Biden immigration law the first in four decades that closes the Border with Mexico and fixes asylum policy. "But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign. So he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal. Well, I refuse to play politics with our security. Here is my pledge to you: As President, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed. And I will sign it into law." Trump blocked it for personal advantage at the elections to use this as an issue which has blocked a permanent solution. Confirming this is a month old interview in NYT by Republican Senator Lankford saying the legislation he drafted would have passed Congress in December 2023 and signed into law by Biden. It came up in Congress in February by this time Trump was made nominee of the party and he blocked it so that he could use the issue in an election. This says a lot about character and more than mere fact checks shifts focus on the characters of the two people running. Steve Kerr coach of the men's basketball Olympic team says decency humility, values and character, a clear authenticity are essential in a leader. People ask yourselves what you would have done in this situation, and what would Kamala have done, would she have blocked a bill that would permanently fix the Border and change US asylum policy?  Biden went on to do this by executive action bringing migrant flow numbers down to where they were under Trump and Obama, and more than that put together a bipartisan bill with Republican Senator Lankford that Kamala can now sign into law.    ...

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he doesn't yet have the necessary votes to stop Democrats from calling for witnesses. Democrats want former presidential National Security Adviser Mr. Bolton to testify under oath about the president's motivations for freezing aid to Ukraine. During three day of presentations by Mr. Trump's defense legal team the focus of Pat Philbin and Alan Dershowitz was on the actions of the president on Ukraine policy not rising to the level of Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Justice that Democrats in the House have presented as the 2 Articles for impeachment. Earlier the White House legal team put the focus on Mr. Biden, and his son Hunter Biden's role in the Ukrainian company Burisma as a board member. Burisma was being investigated for corruption by Ukrainian prosecutors. Much of the defense presentation recalled the effort during the early days after the Civil War to impeach president Andrew Johnson simply because Republicans in Lincoln's party did not like Mr. Johnson's views on Reconstruction of the South, and his dismissal of Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War. That effort failed because it lacked one additional vote needed for a two thirds majority in the Senate. Republicans say not only are the president's actions on Ukraine calling for an investigation of the Biden's not an impeachable offense as "a high crime," but also that Democrats dislike of Mr. Trump just as Republican dislike for Mr. Johnson was lowering the bar for impeachment by making malleable charges. They argued that one of the country's founders Mr. Mason even rejected the idea presented to him that "maladministration" as grounds for impeachment should be put in the Constitution for the very same reason, that it was malleable to a preconceived notion of what is wrong. Four Republican senators Gardner of Colorado, McSally of Arizona, Tillis of North Carolina and Collins of Maine face tight races in upcoming elections, and may decide in favor of a compromise for the calling of witnesses. This would allow Republicans to call Mr. Biden and Hunter Biden to testify, and Democrats to call Mr. Bolton to testify on his views expressed in his to be published book that the president withheld aid to Ukraine because he felt that corruption needed to be investigated.   ...

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How the state of Maharashtra was formed from Bombay state that included Gujarat, by making language as a basis of state formation offers clues for India's economic and political solutions to the problem of modernizing the country in the way Japan and China have done. The same is true for Gujarat.  Gujarat added the princely states of Saurashtra. The original Bombay state did not include Saurashtra or the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of today's Maharashtra state. Vidarbha and Marathwada were added to create Maharashtra, Saurashtra was added to create Gujarat. Voting patterns have given the party that is pushing hardest for modernization of infrastructure with speed and scale favorability in most regions of Maharashtra except Marathwada regions and most regions of Gujarat except Saurashtra. The Bombay city region that forms a large part of the voting population in Maharashtra came first under the influence of British, then Gujarati business, then trade unions, followed by a Mumbai for Marathis movement, and now an integration of the Marathi movement into one that reaches for leadership for modernization on a national scale.   Bombay city is itself being dug up in a way Tokyo in the 20's and 60's must have been, or Shanghai in the 90's, 1912 sites have been dug up for a next generation Metro system of trains, a bullet train to Ahmedabad and New Delhi and for bridges across the Arabian sea, new expressways. Projects that were stalled for decades because of political stalling inaction are now being pushed ahead to be finished in 2-3 years or half the time. In Japan in the 20's the incentive was Japan's resurgence, in the 60's its recovery from world war. In China in the 90's the rush to modernize after the Japanese invasion and failed attempts in the 60's. In India today it is the rush to modernize after the British Empire's extraction of wealth from the country since 1850, and the failed attempts twice in the 60's and 90's.   ...

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Germany faces the possibility of a pandemic surge of the unvaccinated, something that is happening today in the southern United States.  For days the percentage of people that are fully vaccinated remains at 62%. Some vaccination centers are closed. A vaccination center outside the train station in Cologne offers passersby free vaccinations. Berlin's Social Democrat mayor Michael Muller is very frustrated. He says "I am now coming to a point where I think we have exhausted what we can do in politics."  At 62% the rate of fully vaccinated people in Germany is too low to prevent a surge of the Delta variant in the way that it has hit the southern US, and California. Vaccination rates of close to 85% are needed to tackle the risk of another surge in highly contagious delta variant. Not everyone remaining is die hard opposed to vaccines. The Robert Koch Institute estimate is that 5 to 10% of people are in that die hard category. The remaining 20-30 % are people who have various other concerns and fears, hesitancy, that may be changed.  The chairman of the World Medical Association Frank Ulrich Montgomery favors a vaccine mandate, what he calls a 2G rule, that should be introduced in Germany requiring vaccination to attend events, sports, restaurant visits, adopted nationwide. German government has rejected idea of mandatory vaccination of health personnel, that was adopted in France. Vaccination drives are regionally based. Some are ineffective such as the Deutsche Bahn train system vaccination drive for commuters that only had a few hundred doses of J&J vaccine and ran out quickly in Berlin. One prick J&J some say is better for vaccine skeptics. Vaccine skeptics think they may get away without getting covid infection. How does one get over this misconception? Others including members of the Greens party say vaccine needs to be delivered where people are- transit points, bus stops, doses offered in evening and early morning hours, trying new ways to reach people and inspire confidence. Germany now ranks behind France but ahead of Bulgaria in terms of vaccination percentage in September 2021, not a good situation. ...

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Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor of the Washington Post makes some serious points about the Obama presidency, its hesitation at each point to take decisions that previous presidents from the Democratic Party have taken, Bill Clinton for Ireland, the Balkans, and before him Harry Truman for Berlin, Greece, Korea. The result in Syria is a humanitarian catastrophe with millions of refugees in Turkey and Jordan, and in Germany and Austria. Hiatt gives a counter point to Obama's point about "ancient hatreds," that the same could be said about Ireland, the Balkans, and yet Clinton acted in both places, and Truman acted in Greece, Berlin, and Korea. As Dana Milbank of the Washington Post says about Obama's foreign policy advisor and White House Chief of Staff, Dennis McDonough- McDonough is even more cautious than president Obama. This provides insights into the making of foreign policy in the Obama presidency.

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Of the 27 nations represented at the EU summit meeting on January 30, 2012, all except Britain and the Czech Republic agreed to the new measures for budgetary discipline. The new fiscal compact will come into effect after 12 eurozone countries have ratified the compact. This prevents one or two countries holding up the agreement. This provides the Merkel government in Germany an agreement on concrete measures for budgetary discipline- evidence of specific action to dissenters inside the Christian Democratic party and in German public opinion- which would enable it to support efforts by the ECB, the IMF and the EU to address the crisis, including the funding of the European Financial Stability Fund. The text of the fiscal compact makes it harder to block sanctions against countries that fail to impose budgetary discipline, while at the same time making allowance for countries with excessive debt such as Italy.

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Vice President Biden says "I would not refer to Mubarak as a dictator," showing a lack of sensitivity and understanding of the Egyptian people's demands for freedom of expression, human rights, and democracy. Harshaw says that its clear the Mubarak regime has been wounded at the core. In the light of this the Obama administration's hesitant and timid response to the protests against 30 years of one party rule under Mubarak is baffling. It means the US will have to bear the costs of being on the wrong side of public opinion in the Arab world says Harshaw. And President Obama has failed to bring the much needed change that he promised for US relations with Africa, the Arab world, and the developing world. Apart from improvement of relations with Turkey, the failure of the Obama administration to grasp opportunities for forging a new era of relations with the Muslim world.

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The WP's Adam Taylor gives readers glimpses of Ukraine's and Crimea's history. The Crimea was at various times part of the Greek and Roman Empires as Taurica, the Mongols, the Khanate since 1400, and part of the Russian Empire since 1783. About 60% of the population is Russian in the Crimea, 12% Tartars. Under the Soviet Union it was first the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Republic till 1945 and then Crimean Oblast, an administrative region of Russia. It was made part of Ukraine by Russian premier Krushchev in 1954, Krushchev himself being a Russian who came up through the Ukrainian Communist party. In Dec. 1991 a referendum was held in Ukraine, 54% of Crimean voters favored independence from Russia. Crimea remained part of Ukraine with autonomy including its own constitution, and legislature. A 1997 treaty allowed Russia to base its Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea.