St. Petersburg
Formally, St. Petersburg was in Sweden for eighteen years. Peter I announced the founding of the city in 1703, seizing the Swedish city of Nyen and the fortress of Nyenskans by storm, which stood on the site of the future northern capital.
This entertaining story, but not known to a wide range of readers, is described in the article Did Peter I build St. Petersburg? But today we are more interested in the Novgorod Republic that followed Peter's return of the disputed trading territories (since ancient times there was a brisk trade and people lived - there was no "wasteland and deserted swamp").
In 1721, the Northern War ended with the signing of the Nishtad Peace Treaty. Only then did Stockholm, and then all of Europe, officially recognize the annexation of the Neva lands to Russia! Until that moment, St. Petersburg, according to international law, was in Sweden. This is the only case in world history when the capital of one state, the royal court from Moscow, moved already in 1712, for a long time it was formally located on the territory of another.
Map of 1630.
Crimea
I believe that this begs an analogy with the Crimean peninsula, which was returned to Russia in 2014.
Promotional video:
Since ancient times, Crimea has attracted various peoples. At different times, there lived Cimmerians, Scythians, Slavs, Goths, Hellenes, Sarmatians, Bulgarians and Turks, Hungarians, Pechenegs and Khazars. For a long time, the peninsula was part of the empire of Great Tartary, and after its collapse, it became a vassal part of its fragment - the Ottoman Empire.
Fresco V. Vasnetsov Baptism of the Holy Prince Vladimir.
The army under the leadership of General-in-Chief Dolgorukov captured Taurida in 1771. The Crimean Khanate was declared independent, and Khan Girey, who was a protege of the Russian crown, was erected on its throne. Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774 undermined the power of Turkey (about one of the pages of that war, read Suvorov against Pugachev-2. What was hidden by the "Pugachev uprising"?).
Combining military force with cunning diplomacy, Catherine II achieved that in 1783 the Crimean nobility swore allegiance to her. This is how the Russian history of the peninsula began.
Painting by V. Nesterenko Defense of Sevastopol, 1967
In October 1921, it was announced that the Autonomous Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic in the RSFSR was created from the districts of the former Taurida province, which was renamed the Crimean region in 1946. After the expulsion of the Nazis in 1944, facts of mass cooperation with the fascists of the Crimean Tatars and representatives of some other national minorities were revealed. By the decision of the government of the USSR, more than 183 thousand persons of Crimean Tatar origin, a significant number of Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians were deported to remote regions of the country. In 1954, the region was included in the Ukrainian SSR at the suggestion of N. S. Khrushchev.
Painting by P. Maltsev Storming the Sapun Mountain.
After 1991, Crimea remained a part of Ukraine, but with special rights of autonomy, with the right to have its own Constitution and President. The Ukrainian leadership tried to completely subjugate the Crimeans, which created contradictions, as a result of which, after the coup in Kiev, a referendum on reunification with Russia was held.
An analogy suggests itself?
And now, as in the case of St. Petersburg, the territory of Crimea in international organizations is considered to belong to Ukraine, but….
Peter was recognized as Russian after 18 years of his return to Russia - after waiting for a favorable political conjuncture. I think the same will happen with the Crimea.
This is how it usually ends in the end - our shield over their gates.
They become capricious, break to preserve their "face", hold them under sanctions so that others do not have to alienate someone's territory (there are a lot of disputes about historical belonging in the world), and with a sigh - they admit on the sly.
The weaker the United States, the closer the recognition of Crimea to Russia, because it is their will that holds back the Europeans with their pragmatic economic interests. These hucksters would have given up on all the formalities, but the principled Yankees still “keep them on a short leash” …
Well, wait and see.