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[10ebbor10]

The tragic irony now is that if this escalates into a shooting war, it's the inhabitants in Crimea that get to be the bulletcatchers.

That was never, unfortunately, in doubt, my friend.

It's not a good rescue of repressed minorities if you don't get at least some of them killed by the end.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Russian  all-terrain infantry mobility vehicle "Tiger" in action 

It would be interesting to see Russians against a real army, not the one that even more ruined than theirs

[Sheb]

Georgia's army was pretty good it hopelessly outnumbered.

[GlyphGryph]

Anyway, yes, the West has done a royal job of screwing shit up, and has overwhelmingly decided NOT to do whatever things would unequivocally make the situation better.

What would realistically have made the situation better? I'm not so sure that the West has acted that clever either, but I don't really see what else could have been done. Currently we can only try to negotiate.

Here? Not much, which is just frustrating.  In Afghanistan? In Iraq? In Libya? Especially in Syria?

A lot.

An example of a nice, easy, clearly good thing would have been throwing their borders wide open to Syrian refugees and helping the great mass of people fleeing the country not die in refugee camps or at least leave miserable lives on the edge of society.

Of course, the countries in the West aren't really keen on doing the right thing, so... that didn't happen.

[Knit tie]

http://jackmatlock.com/2014/03/ukraine-the-price-of-internal-division/

Here's another opinion. My sole issue is that the writer does not acknowledge the possibility of russian crimeans wanting to join Russia only because they were mistakenly lead to believe, by propaganda, that the current ukrainian government is hostile to them, i.e. that the division between Ukraine's ethnicities is fabricated.

[da_nang]

If Putin cared about the lives of "Russian" citizens in Ukraine, he would have evacuated them, not invaded them. So West, whenever you feel like you're ready to band together once again against the Fourth Reich...

[Dutchling]

Whatever happens, let's blame Germany again, okay?

[nenjin]

http://jackmatlock.com/2014/03/ukraine-the-price-of-internal-division/

Here's another opinion. My sole issue is that the writer does not acknowledge the possibility of russian crimeans wanting to join Russia only because they were mistakenly lead to believe, by propaganda, that the current ukrainian government is hostile to them, i.e. that the division between Ukraine's ethnicities is fabricated.

From what I've read, they're not. There is an honest to goodness 5th column of ultra-nationalists in Ukraine, in the West. The party under which they're gathered control several cabinet positions in government.

So while I think their fears are reasonable, their impact may have been overstated and/or fueled by Russia.

It's just really bizarre because they're on the same side of Ukraine as those who want greater integration with the rest of the EU, who aren't exactly hot on Democratic Socialism after its last incarnation.

[10ebbor10]

Well, the farther right parties are descively anti-Russia, and joining up with the EU makes that pretty easy to achieve. After all, they know that any real Eu integration won't happen in the next 20 years, giving them plenty of time to revolt against that if the time comes.

[kaian-a-coel]

MonkeyHead, we;re talking about Poutine here. He's crazy.

Putin would be so much more likeable if he were actually Poutine.

Well, here in France we write his name "Poutine".
Yet nobody finds it funny because we know fuck-all about canadian food. 

[XXSockXX]

Whatever happens, let's blame Germany again, okay?

Jokes aside, I think there might really be a lot depending on Germany, or rather on whether Angie can achieve anything with Putin. German-Russian relations aren't great, but at least they still talk, while Putin and Obama are probably beyond that point. Germany has the most to lose with sanctions too, we get a third of our oil and gas respectively from Russia. I hope they can pull something off diplomatically.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Merkel has no backbone.

[Bouchart]

Merkel has no backbone.

Putin's response to Merkel would be something like this.

[XXSockXX]

Merkel has no backbone.

Got any better ideas than talking? Going around sulking and issuing threats we can't back up doesn't sound promising either.

Putin's response to Merkel would be something like this.

At least he's not as touchy as Bush II. 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Merkel has no backbone.

Got any better ideas than talking? Going around sulking and issuing threats we can't back up doesn't sound promising either.

Putin's response to Merkel would be something like this.

At least he's not as touchy as Bush II. 

Ukraine has asked Nato to look at all possible ways to help it protect its territorial integrity, foreign minister Sergei Deshchiritsya said today.
The minister said he had held talks with officials from the United States and the European Union and then asked Nato for help after what Ukraine’s prime minister described as Russian aggression.
A request had been made to Nato to “look at using all possibilities for protecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, the Ukrainian people and nuclear facilities on Ukrainian territory,” he said.

Considering Ukraine has requested NATO help and Germany is one of the strongest NATO players in the European realm, I might think they have some leverage here to do something besides idle threats and finger wagging. Or, in Merkel's case, boot-licking.