Here’s what the Ruskies are up to:
Russian financial institutions are rapidly moving their funds out of Western banks and accounts to avoid those assets being frozen when Russia begins its military offensives to reconquer the territories formerly possessed or otherwise controlled by the Soviet Union. The invasion, seizure, and conquest of the Crimea and the rest of the Ukraine is timed to allow the Russian army group/groups to establish themselves in the Ukraine before the Spring rains impede the movements of armored forces.
Upon completion of the invasion and conquest of the Ukraine, the Russian army group/s in the Ukraine may be, if the political circumstances offer the opportunity, moved into assembly areas along the Western and northern borders of the Ukraine for further offensive operations into Moldova and to pin Polish/NATO forces into defensive positions along the southern Polish borders. This existential threat may be used to deny NATO strength needed to defend Lithuania, Latvia, and/or Estonia against a Russian invasion and conquest of those nations, after attention has been directed towards the prior invasion of Moldova.
The timing of these events may be sometime in June 2014, after the Spring rains have abated and the ground is supportive of armored formations. If the situation still warrants doing so, Putin may then direct the Russian forces to further extend Russian offensive operations further into the West to destabilize and/or conquer as much of Central Europe as possible before the U.S. midterm elections can unseat the Democrat majority in the U.S. Senate and present the United States, Great Britain, and the resto of NATO with what Putin expects to be a fait accompli which NATO has no stomach to challenge.
... If there isn't neither sanctions nor the threat will make the least difference. ...........All that the Russian regime needs to do to destroy the Kyiv government is to do nothing and let the forces in play play themselves out....they seem to be willing to fight each other with little provocation.
“US warns” blah-blah-blah
I imagined this conversation:
(Phone rings)
Putin: Putin speaking, who’s there?
Obama: “It’s me again, President Putin. I demand you remove your troops from Crimea.”
Putin: “President Obama, I demand you remove your military base from Guantanamo in Cuba.”
Obama: “What happens in the Western Hemisphere stays in the Western Hemisphere. It’s none of your business.”
Putin: “What happens in the Eastern Hemisphere stays in the Eastern Hemisphere. It’s none of your business.”
Obama: “But France and Germany say ...”
Putin: “France, Germany, pfft. With Germany we’d been there, done that, remember 1941-45? Is momma Merkel sure to go there again?”
Obama: “Well, I draw the red line, too bad you ignore it.”
Putin: “Oh, no, red lines, and more red lines, what are you, a communist? Ha!” (Click.)
Dang! I was considering going over just to stand in the way of a few tanks...