Tens of thousands of people died in the Russian invasion of Chechnya out of a population of only about 1 million. If you adjust the casualties for population size a far greater proportion of Chechens died than did Iraqis in that "bloodless" invasion.
So when the US invades an area and occupies it that's an 'armageddon'. When Russia invades and occupies an area, leading to a far greater slaughter among the residents of that territory that's A-OK. Not only that, but apparently Putin has the 'moral authority' to do this too!
This guy is impressively stupid.
Chechnya is rightfully regarded as civil war, not an invasion. They're often quite bloody & bitter.
One of the parties in the new coalition govt in Ukraine is regarded as proto-fascist, which seems accurate given their past rhetoric-
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20824693
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...-control-its-far-right-ultranationalists.html
I would suggest that it's really impossible for us to tell what's going on in the minds of the people involved, or that we have any ability to control the outcome, other than to advocate peaceful resolution. When our so-called liberal media gets done putting the usual Neocon spin on it, the resemblance to reality is tenuous, at best. For Repubs, whatever Obama does will be painted as wrong, portraying him as a weakling or a war monger, depending.
The truth is that it's not really our business & our ability to act in a rational fashion is extremely limited. Another truth is that, after Yanukovych's ouster, violence seems limited to the ultra nationalists & the national assembly in Kiev, where they punch it out on a regular basis. Relations between Russian & Ukrainian troops in Crimea have been non-violent, & there's been no wave of arrests or imprisonment. I figure they can work it out on their own, particularly if we keep our nose out of it.
The govt in Kiev might as well cede Crimea, get it over with, see what they can do to tear down the looting & corruption that rules their country.
In Crimea, I'm pretty sure that the clown car assembly in Kiev scares the shit out of everybody, as it should, so the peace & relative security of joining Russia is probably more attractive than we might think.