Citizens of Crimea Face Choice Between Putin and Hitler

The upcoming referendum in Crimea that will decide the peninsula’s fate of either formally joining Russia or remaining a semi-autonomous republic within Ukraine, is, unsurprisingly, the subject of fierce debate both inside and outside the region.

Just in case there was anyone left that is still unsure about the importance of Sunday's decision, a billboard went up in Sevastopol that shows a swastika painted over the Crimean peninsula adjacent to an image of one with the Russian flag, depicting the choice as between Russia or Nazism.

This is indicative of the overall message of the campaign about the referendum, says VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky, who is currently in Crimea.

“Anyone who is pro-Russian will tell you that the government in Kiev has been taken over by fascists, a narrative largely put forth by the Russian state media,” Ostrovsky told VICE News today.

— azbuki (@nokreuzer)March 9, 2014

Crimea has formally been a part of Ukraine since 1954, but has had semi-autonomous status since the 1992 constitution that granted it greater independence as the “Republic of Crimea.”

The upcoming referendum will determine if Crimea will return to this status or if it will become an outright part of Russia. Under the 1992 constitution, Crimea was permitted to have a semi-autonomous parliament in the capital of Simferopol, city and state administrative offices separate from Kiev, and tax money earned from Crimean citizens to remain in Crimea rather than sent to Kiev.

The current Ukrainian government has already refused to recognize the outcome of the vote. "It is not a referendum, it is a farce, a fake, and a crime against the state which is organized by the Russian Federation's military," the acting president of Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said in a televised address on Thursday.

Russian billionaire businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky echoed these sentiments, when he urged Crimea to remain unified with Ukraine in a speech in Kiev on Monday. “We Russians are losing the friendship of a brotherly nation,” Khodorkovsky said, and encouraged a "diplomatic way out from the crisis."

Mikhail Khordorkovsky in a speech in Kiev on Monday, urging Crimea not to secede

Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced his support for the referendum in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday. Putin said it was "based on international law and aimed at guaranteeing the legitimate interests of the peninsula's population," according to the Kremlin.

Merkel, however, did not agree. She contended that the referendum was in violation of international law and the Ukrainian constitution, according to Reuters.

President Obama expressed similar sentiments last week in which he stated that the referendum is in violation of international law and that the United States would refuse to recognize the outcome, even if the referendum passed.

The US ambassador to Ukraine reiterated this sentiment on Sunday, adding that the US would not recognize any referendum of Crimean secession on the basis of its illegality.

The US generally opposes referendums that would allow for territories to become independent within the borders of sovereign nations — Catalonia in Spain and Quebec in Canada are two such examples — and it is unlikely Crimea will be any different.

Follow Olivia Becker on Twitter: @obecker928