In saw in a paper today that John Kerry said that the Russian “invasion” of the Crimea was indefensible, he claimed that in the 21st century you can’t invade another country on bogus trumped up charges, unlike in the 19th century. But surely 2003 (the invasion of Iraq) was in the 21st century?! So he is wrong, you can invade a country on trumped up charges, we have a precedent!
I am no apologist for Putin, but it is really worrying that the “West” doesn’t recognise that Russia should have any interest in what happens in the Ukraine when the West is happy to impose its interest on countries far away, by military means if necessary. Hypocritical and dangerous with the Ukrainians stuck in the middle.
The Crimea looks complicated. “Given” to the Ukraine in the 50s by Krushev, after most of the Crimean Tartars had been removed by Stalin and now populated largely by Russians? I am not optimistic that its future is peaceful with competing nationalisms and big power rivalries.