@redsteakraw, is it so hard for an experienced mapper to get back to OSM wiki, finally read two articles (look, I’ve even brought them here to you again):

• about national boundaries and why do we mark them according to ISO standarts which contains no information about Crimea being a part of Russia
• why ‘ground truth’ principle is not applicable in this case.

And please do not reply unless you read these two articles carefully.

@Rory, No, I don’t see any irony here. The only thing I see here is my mistake and please excuse me for that, it was not an intentional mistake. Unfortunately, I guess, now I have to correct one of my statements above which has to sound in the following way: “including Ireland, a place of your origin, UK, a place of incorporation of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, which does not recognise Crimea as a part of Russia and even implements penalties for such UK companies who does”. Do I have to mention additionally that Germany also does not recognise Crimea as a part of Russia and supported mentioned UN Resolution?

@redsteakraw, please take a look on two links mentioned above. They are about the ‘ground truth’ principle.

Dear Rory, Please stop phrase-mongering. A law doesn’t have to be supported by all members of a parliament - it will adopted when majority votes for it. The same principle applies to the UN Resolution and it was supported by majority of states (including UK, by the way, which is a place of your origin and place of incorporation of the OpenStreetMap Foundation - have you heard that your motherland does not recognise Crimea as a part of Russia and even implements penalties for suck UK companies who does?).

I respect your right to believe that Autonomous Republic of Crimea was not annexed by Russia and a real referendum has taken place.

Unfortunately, according to Ukrainian legislation that has been in act at that period, Autonomous Republic of Crimea (neither any other region of Ukraine) could not proclaim its independence basing on local referendum. Instead a quasi-referendum took place which was not officially declared by the government of Ukraine. Instead a Russian invasion has took place (this fact was confirmed by first people of Russia in lots of media interviews).

So please, as I said earlier, stop phrase-mongering and either start (or pretend to start) a real conversation based on facts, international law and OSM internal rules and policies. Otherwise I guess it makes no sense to continue our nice conversation.

1. Sure, let me google this for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomatic_recognition. In respect of Crimea the Resolution affirmed the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

2. Country borders are based on the standard as it is clearly stated in OSM Wiki. Please take a look at the [above mentioned page] (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Boundaries#National) again.

Dear Rory, many thanks for trying to explain your position.

As far as you might now from OSM Wiki, we have the ‘boundaries’ tag for the purpose of mapping administrative boundaries. In respective Wiki page it’s clearly stated that ‘For the sake of clarity, only political entities listed on the ISO 3166 standard are to be considered countries.’

If you will have a moment, please take a look take a look at this standard. It contains no codes for the so-called ‘Republic of Crimea’ and/or so-called ‘Federal City of Sevastopol’, which are internationally recognized as part of Ukraine (that is why I am referring to UN Resolution 68/262). Both Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol do have codes in Ukraine’s entry in ISO 3166-2 (UA-43 and UA-40 respectively).

You might also mention ‘Ground truth’ principle. However, I guess, it is also not applicable to this issue as far as it applies to POIs, but not to administrative boundaries.