[dangus]

Don’t bother asking for sources. Although I checked primary sources, there’s not a word in here you can’t verify from Wikipedia.

[KoRn]

Putin wanted territory, and he took it. Simple as that. (even before 0bama said he couldn’t lol)

It’s a DAMN GOOD THING there isn’t another Hitler right now with a nation like Germany behind him. He would sweep across Europe before the State Department even got out their first sternly worded press release.

[marron]

Good post.

[olezip]

Informative post. Thank you.

[Mount Athos]

There’s a lot natural gas in Crimea, especially offshore.

I read that if tapped, might eventually be equivalent of 10% of Ukraine annual consumption.

Russia is going to build a pipeline to Crimea, will take 2 years.

[Rich21IE]

Well done!

Thanks for the post.

[Reaganez]

The Soviet Union gifted the Crimea to Ukraine in 1954.

The Russians want Crimea for Sevastopol, its only warm water port.

Poverty engenders many extremist parties.

Because oil is at ~$100 Russian income is at around $22k GDP per capita and the neo-Nazi movement very prevalent in Russia in the 90’s has receded. Most of Russia’s wealth is concentrated in Greater Moscow. Calling the Russian Communist Party and A Just Russia Party headed by one of Putin’s close buddies “opposition” parties is a farce. They are a window dressing for Russian “democracy.” They are part of Putin’s state apparatus.

Ukraine with a GDP per capita of ~$4k is a breeding ground for extremist of all kinds including Neo-Fascist. There are strong Neo-Fascist(Nazi) movements inside the EU like Hungary, Austria, and Greece. But they are a small minority in Ukrainian Government.

Ukrainians have the right to protest and Parliament has the right to remove the president, which the Ukrainian Parliament exercised. No coup.

[little jeremiah]

Thought this might be of interest to you.

[edpc]

Personally, what I have observed from news out of Ukraine is this: It's a collection of fractious mobs and goon squads hell-bent on settling vendettas, rather than seeking a path demonstrating their capable of responsible self rule. That will always leave them vulnerable to authoritarian power players on the outside.

Ukraine and events from the Arab Spring, along with the idea of nation building shows us how unique and fragile the American Republic was and why we need to fight like hell to restore it.

[Berlin_Freeper]

The Russian occupiers are already adding to road crash statistics in Crimea

[pgkdan]

Good post and a nice summation of the situation.

[FreeReign]

Your list....

Disagree with some of it.

Some are straw man criticisms.

You left a lot out.

[FreeReign]

If the Russians hadn't been in Crimea, there's no way the Crimeans would've voted to join Russia.

Strawman type of argument.

Of course there is no way to know for sure how an honest vote in the Crimea would have turned out. That's why an honest vote was needed.

An honest vote did not occur.

[FreeReign]

The Russians want Crimea because of oil!

The Russians want Crimea because it is so wealthy!

I've not seen one person here on Free Republic Make either of those two claims.

And they divert attention away from real criticisms.

[FreeReign]

No-one really wants to secede; it's just the Russians stirring trouble.

And of course "no one really wants to secede" is another absurd strawamn type of argument anybody could knock down.

The real issue of course is how many want to secede and how many don't.

[FreeReign]

When the mob took over Kiev, they installed several neo-Nazis to key posts.

Most all countries have Neo-Nazis, at least in Europe. It's arguable that Russia might have the most.

A mob didn't take over Kiev. A mob didn't install Neo-Nazis in key posts.

[caww]

Thank you Dangus, for a good summary of Ukraine and the situation there.

Just as when western media was reporting on Egypt, and for reasons we knew then and now, so too with Russia and Ukraine we find the facts more than blurred behind a systematic and controlled media.......and yet people complain about Putin's control of the Press!

I mentioned prior that hackers had discovered the demand made that all western media must carry their news about Ukraine with an ANTI-Russian position. The media war is very real and heavily ladened with false reporting not seen nor recognized on the ground...and there are those on the ground equally placed to bring the most sensational that would work against Russia. I saw this constantly in Egypts revolution....and frankly I was stunned at the news agencies I thought would never "play" the news as they did.