All of these areas were considered to be 'up for negotiation' after the dissolution of the USSR. It was part of the whole 'exercise of freedom' that areas could democratically negotiate where they ended up. Except those negotiations never actually happened for most of the oblasts, nor were there ways for them to do that after the constitutions were established in the 90's (which bang up fucking job they did on those, it's almost like it's just a scrap of paper).
In a classic case of 'freedom' and it's consequences, instead we are stuck with this complete clusterfuck, because this whole idea 'regions democratically negotiating for their own place in the world' doesn't and has never fucking worked once. Idk why we even bother entertaining it politically as an idea of a thing that can actually happen, it never actually works. The best case scenario is something like the annexation of Crimea, where there is already a large military base present and a very pro-military populace far away from the original nations military, but most of them always just end up like Catalonia, where any chance to even have a fair election is fucked by nationalists beating people in the streets. And even then, it's not like Crimea was unopposed, the Majirs still boycotted the referendum (for good reason they were already occupied by that point). We may as well just say "Alright everybody stay where you are. These arbitrary lines are God-Given and we have no right to fuck with them. If you do, we are obligated to kill you on sight."
All of these areas were considered to be 'up for negotiation' after the dissolution of the USSR. It was part of the whole 'exercise of freedom' that areas could democratically negotiate where they ended up. Except those negotiations never actually happened for most of the oblasts, nor were there ways for them to do that after the constitutions were established in the 90's (which bang up fucking job they did on those, it's almost like it's just a scrap of paper).
In a classic case of 'freedom' and it's consequences, instead we are stuck with this complete clusterfuck, because this whole idea 'regions democratically negotiating for their own place in the world' doesn't and has never fucking worked once. Idk why we even bother entertaining it politically as an idea of a thing that can actually happen, it never actually works. The best case scenario is something like the annexation of Crimea, where there is already a large military base present and a very pro-military populace far away from the original nations military, but most of them always just end up like Catalonia, where any chance to even have a fair election is fucked by nationalists beating people in the streets. And even then, it's not like Crimea was unopposed, the Majirs still boycotted the referendum (for good reason they were already occupied by that point). We may as well just say "Alright everybody stay where you are. These arbitrary lines are God-Given and we have no right to fuck with them. If you do, we are obligated to kill you on sight."