Ms. Nina Khrushcheva is highly critical of President Putin's foreign policies. In the Ukrainian conflict she doesn't seem to offer Putin an advice, as how he should deal with sessionist sentiments harboured by the Russian-speaking population in the East and South.

In recent months, amid the turmoil in Kiev, President Putin had raised eyebrows in the West, when he seemed to question Ukraine's territorial integrity. After the fall of Yanukovich's regime, tensions rise in Crimea, as pro-Moscow protesters urge Russia to help defend their territory from the new leaders in Kiev. This could offer Moscow a perfect opportunity to reclaim the region, which many Russians see as theirs. Crimea was handed over to Ukraine in 1954 by the author's great grandfather, Nikita Khrushchev, who, then Soviet leader, was an ethnic Ukrainian himself.

Both the West and the new authorities in Kiev vow to preserve Ukraine's territorial integrity and warn Russia against any military action in Crimea. Although ethnic Russians are still a majority (58.5%), there are also a significant Ukrainian (24.4%) and a Crimean Tatar population (12.1%). These two groups will unite to resist any secessionist attempts of the Russian-speakers.

Does Ms. Khrushcheva believe the Kremlin should reclaim "Russia's Crimean Shore"? Since Empress Catherine the Great annexed Crimea in 1783, it remained part of Russia until 1954. The region was so important, that Odessa in Southern Ukraine on the Black Sea coast was the fourth largest city of Imperial Russia in the 19th Century after Moscow, St. Petersburg and Warsaw.

Crimea had been the "gem in the imperial crown". Today Russians see the Crimean coastline as their "Riviera", a destination for tourists attracted by sun, sea and history. Russia's own Black Sea Fleet has its base in Sevastopol, whose controversial presence is a thorn in many Ukrainians' side. As Moscow will not give up Crimea and nor does Kiev want to lose it, both sides have to find a peaceful solution to settling this bone of contention.

