Back a couple of months ago when Russian President Vladimir Putin,  the new BFF of both the hate America movement and the American isolationist movement, gouged a large chunk of real estate from a neighboring nation, people like Ron Paul nearly messed themselves in their eagerness to assure us that Putin had international law on his side and self determination was a great thing. (Somehow, self-determination was not good for the majority of the Ukrainian people who threw off a fraudulently elected pro-Russian regime, but one gives up expecting logical and moral consistency from these people.)

Now the “President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights”  has committed the very definition of a gaffe. From Forbes, Putin Accidentally Posts Real Crimean Election Results; Only 15% Voted For Annexation:

The website of the “President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights” posted a blog that was quickly taken down as if it were toxic radioactive waste. According to the Council’s report about the March referendum to annex Crimea, the turnout was a maximum 30%. And of these, only half voted for annexation – meaning only 15 percent of Crimean citizens voted for annexation.

The fate of Crimea, therefore, was decided by the 15 percent of Crimeans, who voted in favor of unification with Russia (under the watchful eye of Kalashnikov-toting soldiers).

The official Crimean election results, as reported widely in the Western press, showed a 97 percent vote in favor of annexation with a turnout of 83 percent. No international observers were allowed. This pro-Russia election pressure would have raised the already weak vote in favor of annexation.

To make sure no one misses this:

Official Kremlin results: 97% for annexation, turnout 83 percent, and percent of Crimeans voting in favor 82%.

President’s Human Rights Council results: 50% for annexation, turnout 30%, percent of Crimeans voting in favor 15%.

One can infer that a substantial majority of the 50% of Crimeans who did not turn out to vote did so because they were deterred by the pervasive presence of ill-disciplined Russian troops patrolling the streets and a lack of faith in the fairness of the voting process making in very likely that they would have voted against annexation.

None of this is to say that annexation could have been prevented. A fractured NATO alliance and our strained relations with the EU, both of which are features not bugs of Obama’s foreign policy, was unable to effectively deter Putin. Our own national leadership was reduced to chanting platitudes and accusing those who wanted to do something of clamoring for war. But it is important that the people who supported this “right to self determination” be forced to wear the results of this fraudulent election as a badge of shame.