On this day in 2014 thousands of pro-Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar protesters gathered outside the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea in Simferopol to protest Russia's annexation of Crimea. Two protesters would die in the clashes with the Russians. My friend was among the protesters.
On the following day, Russian "little green men" would seize the Crimean government and take over the peninsula. Russian military occupied the Verkhovna Rada and held the Crimean politicians at gun point, seizing their phones and cutting off their internet. The Rada held an emergency session in which the Crimean government was terminated and the Prime Minister was replaced with the pro-Russian politician Sergey Aksyonov. His party only received 4% of the vote in the prior election.
If you want to know what a coup actually looks like, it was what happened in Crimea. Not Maidan. Members of the Crimean Rada were taken hostage by the Russian military and forced to vote for dissolution of the government and the installation of pro-Russian individuals.
People like Elon Musk would like you to believe the annexation of Crimea was organic. Polling of Crimeans prior to 2014 believe this notion. And the events put this notion to bed. The Russian military overtly took over Crimea. Thousands of Crimeans would become internally displaced persons. Crimean Tatars and pro-Ukrainian Crimeans in Russian-occupied Crimea faced discrimination and abuse in the years following annexation. Russian civilians moved to the peninsula and illegally took over the homes and property of thousands of native Crimeans.