uniforms. and they came to be known as the littlee green men. some of them stormed crimea s regionalto parliament, they barricaded themselves inside and they raised the russian flag overde the building. the next day, more of these green uniformed men seized airports in crimea. within a couple of week, the whole of crimea was under the control of these little green men. they were clearly pro-russian. spokeey russian. and they were heavily armed with russian weapons. but russian president vladimir putin insisted they were not russian troops. he said they were local self-defense forces, acting on their own. and he couldn t help it if the people of crimea liked russia more than they liked the new pro-western government in ukraine. the confusion led to headlines from the bbc, russia in quotation marms occupy crimeaqu airports so it was cle
0 story. great story. great reporting. thank you. that is all in on this monday night the rachel maddow show with guest host ale good evening, alex. thank you, chris. happy valentine s day, my friend. to you as well. my heart is warm. fr mine, too. and thanks to all of you at us this hour.ng it was february 2014, the autocratic pro-russian ruler of ukraine had just fled the country after being forcedle ou of officeco by pro-democracy street protests. in that confusing aftermath, soldiers began appearing in the southernld ukrainian province o crimea. theai soldiers had no identifyi insignia, and war plain green uniforms. and they came to be known as the littlee green men. some of them stormed crimea s regionalto parliament, they barricaded themselves inside and they raised the russian flag overde the building. the next day, more of these green uniformed men seized airports in crimea. within a couple of week, the whole of crimea was under the control of these little green