landgrab

If a landgrab unrecognised by the international community is approved by the US as legal, what would that mean for international law and the principles of the UN charter?

Strelkov, a former intelligence officer, played a key role in Russia's 2014 landgrab of Crimea.

His brief military foray into Georgia in 2008, his landgrab in Ukraine in 2014, his intervention in Syria in 2015 — none were comparable in their size or audacity.

He reminded Russians of the war in Iraq and the bombing of Belgrade, but steered clear of Russia's long and devastating role in the Syrian civil war, its invasion of neighbouring Georgia or landgrab in Crimea.

The tycoon took on the role of governor of the wider Dnipropetrovsk region in 2014 and played a key role in funding volunteer battalions in response to Russia's initial landgrab in eastern Ukraine.