I would have posted this in the happy thread, but I dislike people who take politics out of the politics threads. I said I would watch and wait, and it looks like I've saved myself a whole lot of blab.
As for the benefits of this whole affair - foreign relations may have taken a hit, but the popularity of the government and national morale in general has improved tremendously. I have never liked my country's politicians much, but I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised that my government has taken measures to protect and support the place where my family lives. As such, I don't think any further military intervention is required, because with the retarded way the new government of Ukraine has been going about business, it'll fall apart all by itself in short order. And then everybody in Ukraine can see for themselves the benefits of eurointegration. We had one in Russia - mom still tells frightening tales about there being no bread in shops for weeks, and the river vale in front of my house still has all those little plots of land where people - people in Moscow, mind you - used to grow potatoes to feed themselves.
Now the Tatars. Tatar genocide by Russians is a fucking ridiculous idea. First of all, the Tatars in Crimea are far better organized than the Russians. They are not frightened little lambs - they're people who can make others respect them with force. Back in the nineties, they used to evict people from premises because apparently, the bones of their ancestors lie in the foundations, and move in. If anyone tries anything against them, they will give us the guerilla war that UR has been so loftily blabbing about before. This leads smoothly into my second point. Those times are long past. The Tatar and Russian populations of Crimea have been living in peace for twenty years. My grandfather's institute has plenty of Tatar scientists. A lot of Crimean Russians are half- or quarter-Tatar. We're all buddy-buddy. Third, Ukrainians whining about the rights of Tatars are starting to piss me off, because the Ukrainian government has been stepping all over those for the whole period of Ukrainian occupation (this is the word I will use: it was one. I was there, I know.), with the exception of short periods when it needed them to counterweigh the Russian population. Tatar support for Ukraine (already negligible - where's the boycott we were promised?) will fade quickly, because Russia can give them and their language and culture long-term rights and privileges as a sovereign people, unlike the government of Ukraine, which is only interested in the rights of Ukrainians - make that right Ukrainians.
All in all, you guys may say whatever you want (make no mistake, I love you all, it's just that you don't know shit about Crimea, Russia, Ukraine, or anything east of Tallin), and I will live and work in the homeland of my father. It looks like it will need me in the upcoming period.
P.S. As for provocations, I wonder whose train full of soldiers and military hardware was recently stopped in Donetsk. It wasn't mine for sure, this I know.