[huckfillary]

I don’t know why they care who the Ukraine cozies up to. How does it harm them? How does it affect Russian interests? It’s not like the Ukrainians pose a military threat to the Russians or for that matter any threat of any kind. I guess I just don’t think like an imperialist.

[AnAmericanAbroad]

It’s all about the Crimean Peninsula, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

And from there, to the Mediterranean and then the Atlantic.

If they lost Sevastopol, they lose a lot. The Russian Navy’s access to the Med, the Middle East and beyond into the Atlantic is crippled.

The Russians are working on a new base in Russia proper, but it’s not ready to go yet; it’s probably another couple of years or so.

[bubbacluck]

I think a boatload of gas pipelines traverse Ukraine on the way to Europe.

[silverleaf]

This may help you understand Russia's interests (aside from history and geography of course)

[Hot Tabasco]

How does it affect Russian interests?

The Ukraine is rich with newly discovered natural resources and there are forces within that want them to join the failing EU.........

Yanukovich is opposed to that union, and rightfully so, and has instead chosen to accept aid from Russia..............

This is not a typical uprising of the people against the president who really hasn't done anything wrong. Instead, there's a coordinated faction, similar to our past SDS and Weathermen, that is successfully funding and leading the civilian protests that are going on in the Ukraine........

[Grzegorz 246]

Ukraine is a key element to reestablishing (or not) Russia as a major global power. Russia has huge area, thousands of nukes and oil/gas money, what they are missing are people, Russia has population of only 144 million, not enough to be a major global player, that's why they are trying to put together ex-Soviet republics slowly turning them into client states. Ukraine is by far the largest of them, once they get it back (or at least a large part), cold war 2.0 is on (it will be initiated once Russia is strong enough, how the west reacts is irrelevant, Obama could even tattoo “reset with Russia” on his forehead, it doesn't matter, actually appeasement will only speed things up). Gorbi guy didn't shut down the business, he just sold a part of fixed assets to regain liquidity, implement new market strategy and wait for a good opportunity to buy them back. With the west in economic crisis and under weak leadership, the opportunity is now.