“Under what rock had this person been living if he believed Russia could be trusted in the first place.”
It makes no difference whatsoever what rock this or any other person had been living under, because the peace overtures of the other nations to post-Soviet Russia required treating the new Russian state as an equal partner in peace regardless of Russia’s true intentions. Call it an application of the principle of “due diligence” or whatever else you wish, the other nations were offering Russia the opportunity of joining their ranks as a nation at peace and exercising good will with the other nations. Russia has now spurned the opportunity to live in peace with its neighbors, and is now in the process of guaranteeing Russia can never be trusted no or in the future when it comes time to make decisions about relatons with Russia or any further separatist states which emerge from today’s Russia.
In other words, Putin and his regime are now guaranteeing the future dissolution of Russia as it is known today. It is now only a question of time, treasure, and bloodshed by all parties involved before we see Russia permanently fall apart as a consequence of its criminal conduct.
Stalin deliberately settled millions of ethnic Russians into the Ukraine, after World War II, for the purpose of undermining social cohesion. A great many Ukrainians had openly sided with the Germans during World War II, and this was Stalin's way to suppress their capacity to resist their return to the Bolshevik yoke. (Remember that he had earlier designed the murder of millions of Russian & Ukrainian farmers--setting back agriculture, before the war--because those farmers had resisted collectivization.)
The Crimea is a special case, as others have pointed out; both because of its long-term relationship to Russia, and its strategic importance to Russia. But there was a far stronger reason to accept the wish of a predominantly Russian Crimea to return to Russia; and Americans unwilling to stand up to those who have deliberately allowed a flood from Mexico to pour into the South West, will ignore that reason to our terrible peril.
From an American standpoint, this problem is not addressed by the distraction of trying to demonize Putin, who has been reviving religious Faith in Russia, even as our leaders are doing their utmost to suppress religious Faith in America. (For a few thoughts on our problem, see Crimea.)
As for the rest of the actual, traditional Ukraine, we would be kindly disposed to pray that the nations involved find Divine help to resolve issues, coldly & deliberately foisted on the generations to come by a sociopathic Stalin.
William Flax
Your post #26 was spot on. Good reasoning!