(https://culanth.org/) Log In (/login) | Contact Us (mailto:culanth@culanth.org) | Join SCA (http://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Landing.aspx? ItemNumber=20711&&navItemNumber=587) Search Crimeastan by Greta Uehling This article is part of the series Ukraine and Russia: The Agency of War (/fieldsights/610-ukraine-and-russia-the-agency-of-war) (https://typhoon- production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/image_attachment/image_attachment/1951/Uehling_1.jpg) " Little Green Man in Crimea (http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/03/believed-to-be-russian-soldiers/100696/) ." Photo by Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko. His cell phone number is scrawled inside the back cover of my field notebook: Sergey Aksyonov: 098-266-44-53. It’s 2013, and I am piloting a research project I plan to use for a monograph exploring idioms of belonging among Russians and Crimean Tatars in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. I try the number several times, but my calls go straight to voicemail. I am, however, able to interview Russians in the headquarters of the Russian Unity party, beneath a campaign poster with his Mona Lisa smile. (https://typhoon-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/image_attachment/image_attachment/1952/Uehling_2_1.jpg) Aksyonov poster, 2013. Photo by Greta Uehling. Aksyonov is now the Prime Minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. He took the position in a Spring 2014 coup d’état that catapulted him from being a figure in the criminal underworld, where he was known as “the Goblin,” to acting Prime Minister. The coup began when tanks bearing troops without military insignias, but widely believed to be Russian military, rolled into Crimea. What were sarcastically referred to as “little green men” then took over. What Ukraine terms an unlawful “annexation” is, after the hasty referendum, called a voluntary “accession” by the Russian Federation. The Crimean Parliament recently considered a bill to put the little green men on salary to maintain law and order.