Posted on 02/27/2014 10:41:38 PM PST by BurningOak
Dozens of armed men in military uniforms seized an airport in the capital of Ukraine's strategic Crimea region early Friday, a report said.
Witnesses told the Interfax news agency that the 50 or so men were wearing the same gear as the ones who seized government buildings in the city, Simferopol, on Thursday and raised the Russian flag.
The report said the men with "Russian Navy ensigns" first surrounded the Simferopol Airport's domestic flights terminal.
The report could not be immediately confirmed.
The events in the Crimea region have heightened tensions with neighboring Russia, which scrambled fighter jets to patrol borders in the first stirrings of a potentially dangerous confrontation reminiscent of Cold War brinksmanship.
Russia also has granted shelter to Ukraine's fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, after recent deadly protests in Kiev swept in a new government.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
So basically Putin invaded Ukraine using an army that was already there. The Parliament has been stormed, the airport just taken, and armored troop carriers are rolling around Sevastopol. A massive Russian army is on the border prepared to intervene in case Ukraine tries to retake the province. The puppet Ukranian President is in Russia, might be installed as governor of Crimea and whatever else Putin lops off Ukraine.
The Russians have a cold, calculating, and ruthless dictator at the helm. What do we have?
Invasion happened during the Soviet era
Sad
A nancy boy dedicated to punishing Uganda?
The issue in the Crimea is that it’s only Ukrainian by accident. Nikita Kruschev transferred the region’s authority to the Ukrainian local government under the USSR, but the move was made for some very arbitrary reason, Nikita obviously not knowing the fate that awaited his beloved union.
If the majority ethnic Russians in Crimea and a few of the nearby regions would rather be with Russia, it would be best just to let them go rather than sending Ukrainian forces (which are in total disarray after the coup, an elite branch completely disbanded due to violence against the protesters) into a death trap. They would be fighting the Crimean citizens AND perhaps Russian forces from Sevastopol. A nightmare scenario.
Possible upside, Hillary goes in as a peace mediator and fails to duck the ‘sniper fire’ this time. I can imagine if Lurch got shot, his facial expression would not change.
The Russians played this game several times before.
They actually fuel the chaos (under the table), and then they use the argument of “protecting ethnic Russians” as their reason for going in.
You speak of the Soviet era as if it is over...
I am sure Putin would think twice about such a move if Ted Cruz or hell, even McCain was at the helm.
Exactly, except you are wrong about the under the table part. They seem to be rather brazen about it lately.
Then they can buy a bus ticket to Russia. The Soviets colonized these countries for just this purpose.
I don’t think they want to get on the bus back to Russia, I think Putin decided the bus should have a new station.
The White House phone is ringing and going unanswered
Well, I hope you’ll pray for Ukrainian military forces if they are forced to go into Crimea, because I sure as hell would not want to be heading onto that peninsula to fight a much stronger military and a local populace that supports them.
If McCain was at the helm, we’d be fighting wars with half the countries in the world. He’d be bombing the Swaziland presidential palace.
I guess you consider CA and TX part of Mexico then?
I don’t think the Russians are to worried about us or the Euro’s, so them being brazen about this isn’t surprising.
Ultimately, the US military is the under writer of US foreign policy, and the US is the leader of the pact (Western free nations). When the US concedes to Iran, Russia, Assad, (as we have), no one else will step up to the plate. Ironically, that is what many in Europe have been hoping for all along, and we shall see how much they like this trend in years to come.
Dealing with hyenas from the position of weakness doesn’t get you good outcomes, and the world is full of hyenas.
>>>The report said the men with “Russian Navy ensigns” first surrounded the Simferopol Airport’s domestic flights terminal.<<<
Probably a provocation. Chechens were famous to dress in Russian uniform, ski masks and rob their own civilians to break “hearts and minds” effort on part of Russian military.
IMHO, direct military intervention make no sense on Russian side right now.
I just see no benefits for them to do it.
>> What do we have?
A Marxist with a lot more latitude now in his second term.
Russia is not going to allow a neo-Nazi regime to take power in Kiev by force, which is what just happened (read who are the deputy PM’s and ministers in this new unelected government) and bring millions of Russians under their control. The Crimea is 67% or so Russian. It was Russian territory until Khrushchev (a Ukrainian) gave it to Soviet Ukraine in 1954 as a gift.
Only fools thought this would stand. Fools in the EU and in the White House.
That’s a bunch of crap. If anything, unlike Obama he would have shut GITMO down sooner, and his use of force would have been more committed to success, i.e. no half hearted and symbolic gestures that get people killed: Somalia 1993, Libya...
What likely wouldn’t be happening is social experimentation, purging of senior officers, and political pandering within the DoD so that cheap political capital can be gained among feminists and homosexuals. The cuts to defense would likely still have happened, but instead of a Commander in Chief that adds onto the cuts (money to buy votes elsewhere and the DoD isn’t Democrat anyhow - no political damage done) and goes even further, you would have had someone that would have been trying to limit the cuts and how deep they go.
I think Putin will wait until the Crimean referendum on May 25. If the Republic votes for state sovereignty and closer association with Russia, Putin will have the legitimacy to intervene based on the democratic vote of the people of Crimea.
And the putchists in Kiev who were not even elected by their own people, would be in no position to enforce Ukrainian sovereignty there. Russians simply don’t like the Ukrainian nationalists who dominate te new regime.
The only way Kiev can regain control is to violate the very ideals it claimed to be fighting for in seeking freedom from Russia. Crimea is not worth the fight for them with all the problems they have.
Its better to shed it and to look West but extremists in Kiev emboldened by their victory may decide press their luck. They’ll find themselves not up against a weak and ineffectual Yanukovych but against a very enraged Russian Bear.
Forcing ethnic Russians to remain in Ukraine against their will would mean Ukraine having to kiss good-bye to its dreams of becoming part of the West. Kiev should let them go and rejoin Russia if they want.
“Probably a provocation...
IMHO, direct military intervention make no sense on Russian side right now.
I just see no benefits for them to do it.”
Respectfully I have to say you are completely wrong. Russia has 20,000 troops in the Crimea already on its military base there. They have stormed the parliament, rolled armor into the streets, have the full support of the ethnically Russian majority, and have taken the airport.
Crimea is an incredibly important industrial and geopolitical location, it makes perfect sense for the Russians to invade it and benefits Putin tremendously.
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