The American CNN TV channel has revealed a shocking lack of geographical knowledge. A CNN report about self-defense fighters' pullout from the towns of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk in southeastern Ukraine carried a map locating Slavyansk in the western part of Crimea.
Covering Ukrainian troops' seizure of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, both situating in Ukraine's southeast Donetsk region, the CNN mislocated Slavyansk, "moving" it to Crimea which has recently become part of Russia.
Similar blunders echo the latest remark by Stephen Colbert, the host of the popular Colbert Report satirical show, who said, citing a Washington Post poll, that barely one in six Americans could locate Ukraine on a map of the world correctly.
Many believe that Ukraine is in Greenland or in Africa or even in the United States.
Paradoxically, the same poll shows that the less Americans know about the location of Ukraine, the more they want the United States to intervene, Colbert said.
But who cares? Do the Americans really need to know where a country is on a map to send troops to it? Not necessarily. They can look it up in Google afterwards.
Google Maps marks Crimea as part of Russia
The Google search engine has recognized Crimea as part of Russia. A border between Ukraine and Crimea has appeared on Google Maps with the names of cities and towns in English and Russian, and not Ukrainian.
Svetlana Andurova, a spokesperson for Google's Russian office told reporters that the Google Maps team was doing everything possible to offer objective maps of disputed areas. In relevant cases, disputed borders have special markings, she said. "In countries where we have localized versions, we follow the local laws with respect to borders and geographic names," Anurova added.
A source close to the company has said that Crimea will be marked on Google maps as Russian territory for Russian users and as Ukrainian territory for Ukrainian users. For the rest, it will remain a disputed territory and its border will be marked with dotted lines, the Moscow-based Vedomosti newspaper reports, which posed a dire problem for map services.
Crimea became part of Russia in March, but the United States and the European Union have not recognized the Russian jurisdiction over the peninsula, leaving map services puzzled as to what they should do about Crimea.
Russia's Yandex search engine has found a Solomon solution. In late March, Yandex Maps announced that it would mark Crimea differently for Russian and Ukrainian users: the former will see it as a Russian territory, while for the latter it will still be marked as part of Ukraine.
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