C'mon baby, light my (Crimean) fire

Asia Times ^ | 07 March 2014 | Pepe Escobar

[Lorianne]

March 16 is C Day. The Crimean parliament - by 78 votes with 8 abstentions - decided this is the day when Crimean voters will choose between joining the Russian Federation or to remain part of Ukraine as an autonomous region with very strong powers, according to the 1992 constitution.

Whatever "diplomatic" tantrums Washington and Brussels will keep pulling, and they will be incandescent, facts on the ground speak for themselves. The city council of Sevastopol - the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet - has already voted to join Russia. And next week the Duma in Moscow will study a bill to simplify the mechanism of adhesion.

Quick recap: this is a direct result of Washington spending US$5 billion - a Victoria "F**k the EU" Nuland official figure - to promote regime change in Ukraine. On the horizon, Crimea may be incorporated into Russia for free, while the "West" absorbs that bankrupt back-of-beyond (Western Ukraine) that an Asia Times Online reader indelibly described as the "Khaganate of Nulands" (an amalgam of khanate, Victoria's notorious neo-con husband Robert Kagan, and no man's land).

[Mike Darancette]

So independence is not an option?

[Mike Darancette]

I wonder if Russia and Crimea have done cost/benefit analysis.

[goldstategop]

Russia will need to spend billions of roubles to upgrade Crimea’s infrastructure, create jobs and raise the standard of living.

Ukraine is bankrupt. Pocketbook issues even more than nationalism, will woo Crimean voters into joining Russia. Its the promise of a better future.

Kiev would have a chance if it could dangle billions in front of Simferopol. It doesn’t have that leverage. Ukraine’s new rulers have forgotten money buys loyalty far more than appeal to sentiment.

[Mike Darancette]

Ukraine is bankrupt. Pocketbook issues even more than nationalism, will woo Crimean voters into joining Russia.

Maybe Ukraine is bankrupt because Russia helped them get that way. Russia doesn't seem too happy that the Ukraine was trying to do something about it.

[rmlew]

Quick recap: this is a direct result of Washington spending US$5 billion - a Victoria "F**k the EU" Nuland official figure - to promote regime change in Ukraine. On the horizon, Crimea may be incorporated into Russia for free, while the "West" absorbs that bankrupt back-of-beyond (Western Ukraine) that an Asia Times Online reader indelibly described as the "Khaganate of Nulands" (an amalgam of khanate, Victoria's notorious neo-con husband Robert Kagan, and no man's land).
Firstly, "Ukraine" means borderland. I'd love to read what the "reader" actually wrote. Because for Russians this is none too coded language of a Jewish plot. "Khaganate" does not come from the name of Nulands husband. Rather it comes from the term for certain Turkic empires, who were led by Khagans (Khans of Khans, ie emperors). The Kievan Rus was created in opposition to the "Jewish Country", the Khazar Khaganate, which was centered on Crimea and what is now the Russian southern district, as well as Dagestan and parts of European Kazakhistan.
Hence, I find the author calling the Ukrainian nationalists nazis (and there are some of those in Svaboda and Right Front) rather ironic.

[DaveA37]

“Russia will need to spend billions of roubles to upgrade Crimea’s infrastructure, create jobs and raise the standard of living.”......

WHAT? They recruited odumbo to come fix their problems once he is no longer POTUS? God save them!