and today, even as russia once again denied they have any soldiers in ukraine, or crimea at all, troops took control of another ukrainian military post. reporters were held back from getting to the base. and there are reports that some journalists were badly beaten outside of it. all this as crimea edges closer to the march 16th referendum on joining the russian federation. in case it wasn't already abundantly clear what russia's hand was in that vote, one day after the crimean parliament voted for the referendum, the speaker of that parliament was in moscow today getting the blessing of russian lawmakers. for all the seeming unanimity of the current crimean parliament on joining russia and the pro-russia protests happening for the past week, there's one group of crimeans that do not want to leave ukraine, the tatars who make up 15% of the population. they were deported from their homeland, enmass by stalin 70 years ago and only managed to start to return in the last few decades and have made it very