i know there are russian troops and forces everywhere. russian troops that amassed again last night on the border. real concerns that this is all taking place with tremendous intimidation. especially the tatars and other minority groups have been intimidated and threatened regarding this upcoming vote. reporter: most people we ve spoken to do not feel it will be a free and open election. there was a small demonstration today to boycott the referendum. but the people who are holding it decided not to hold it in the center of town. instead they went to the edge of simferopol, the capital of crimea where i am right now, because they were concerned they would be attacked and beaten up by the pro-russian militia men in control of this city and in control of the roads leading in and out of crimea, in control of the trains that come on and off the peninsula. there is a deep concern that it
government in kiev. and how is this going to go? when they become part of russia and they ve thought they are ukrainians. what i worry about is provocations. you could have some muslim tatars do some kind of attack or have an attack that s blamed on this community then you have a pretext for russia to advance further to take further steps. you could see russian orthodox churches, for example, being attacked in the east because they re so split in that same blue/green map, there is the ukrainian orthodox and russian orthodox church. they don t always see eye to eye. you can see if a couple russian orthodox churches start burning down, that s another provocation to go in. there s a lot of things that could go wrong. if there s bloodshed, the russians might say, you know what, we need to go further, we have no choice. we ve annexed the most important bit which is the crimea, but we need to go further in order to protect the russians. that s a whole new question. then we have a rea
are more diverse than we re showing in a two-color map. there are ukrainian speaking populations inside crimea and eastern ukraine. there s the tatars population. let s pull up the map of crimea. you re right, there s not a black or white narrative or in this case yellow and green narrative. that was a political map. that showed their leanings. are they voting toward russia? many of these people are also ethnic russians and russian speakers. but there are these other divisions. crimea has one. there are these other divisions. crimea in particular has one. crimea has about 2 million people. about 30% of the population are muslim tatars and sympathetic toward the new revolutionary
oplations inside crimea and eastern ukraine. there s the tatars population. let s pull up the map of crimea. you re right, there s not a black or white narrative or in this case yellow and green narrative. are they voting toward russia? many of these people are also ethnic russians and russian speakers. bullet there are these other divisions. crimea in particular has one. crimea has about 2 million people. about 30% of the population are muslim tatars and sympathetic toward the new revolutionary government in kiev. and how is this going to go? when they become part of russia and they ve thought they are ukrainians. what i worry about is
provocations. you could have some muslim tatars do some kind of attack or have an attack that s blamed on this community then you have a pretext for russia to advance further to take further steps. you could see russian orthodox churches, for example, being attacked in the east because they re so split in that same blue/green map, there is the ukrainian orthodox and russian orthodox church. they don t always see eye to eye. you can see if a couple russian orts dox churches start burning down, that s another provocation to go in. there s a lot of things that could go wrong. if there s bloodshed, the russians might say, you know what, we need two go further, we have no choice. we ve annexed the most important bit which is the crimea, but we need to go nufurther in order t protect the russians. that s a whole new question. then we have a real incident. nbc chief foreign correspondent and chief map maker, richard engel. thank you for being here. vanuatu. vanuatu.