For your edification Greg, this article by Professor Eugene Kontorovich explains the legal status in international law of the so-called "occupied territories" in terms even you will be able to understand: Crimea, International Law, and the West Bank

I'll post his bio to help you out for when you attack him:

Professor Kontorovich's research spans the fields of constitutional law, international law, and law and economics. He has authored a series of papers that extend "transaction cost" analysis from private law to constitutional law. Prof. Kontorovich is also a leading expert on maritime piracy, universal jurisdiction and international criminal law. His scholarship has been relied on in important foreign relations cases in the federal courts, and historic piracy cases in the U.S. and abroad. He is working on a book, Justice at Sea: Piracy and the Limits of International Criminal Law, under contract with Harvard University Press.