BTW: Ukraine spinning off Crimea may be the best thing for the west because now they won’t have the Russian voters in their elections. Now they can adopt more Western policies...if they wish.
That’s true.
Kiev is denouncing its treaties with Russia and the Sevastopol basing rights for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet but they have no practical significance because Crimea is now in Russia.
And Ukraine can now look westwards without having to worry about Russian blackmail. The feeling in Kiev is, since Crimea wants to go join Russia - that’s fine with us. We have a civil divorce and now we can go our separate ways.