1.   Crimea, a strategic Black Sea peninsula conquered by Russian armies under Catherine the Great, was given to Ukraine as a present by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

2.   Critics blame Meshkov for embroiling Crimea, a strategic peninsula in the Black Sea populated mostly by Russians, in a bitter struggle with the central government in Ukraine.

3.   Crimea has been part of Ukraine for decades but most of its residents are ethnic Russians and Russia historically regards the strategic Black Sea peninsula as its own.

4.   On Tuesday morning, a police sergeant lowered the Ukrainian flag from a pole in downtown Simferopol, the capital of the strategic Black Sea peninsula.

5.   The Security Council expressed disappointment Friday over the lack of progress in resolving differences between Yugoslavia and Croatia over the strategic Prevlaka peninsula.

6.   The strategic Black Sea peninsula is also the home of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet, which has been the subject of disputes between Moscow and Kiev.

7.   U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is recommending a six-month extension of the observer mission in the strategic Prevlaka peninsula, disputed by Yugoslavia and Croatia.

8.   Ukraine said Tuesday that the work of the Russian consular team on the strategic Black Sea peninsula violated international conventions and the conditions of its mandate.

9.   The region has been tense since the former Yugoslav army occupied the strategic Adriatic peninsula during the Croatian war of independence with Belgrade.

10.   Serbs have been seeking control of the strategic peninsula, now in Croat hands, to gain vital access to the Adriatic.