Hard to know for sure whether Russia is truly democratic. If it is, Putin would be committing electoral suicide by adding 50m Ukrainians who don't want to be part of Russia. It would be as if the GOP decided to add Mexico to the union by coercive means.
Hard to say what Putins end game is, he’s very clever. I hope the Russian people start protesting his covert meddling in Ukraine. Seems like they support it, so far. But of course, their media is almost entirely state controlled now.
I’m getting pretty skeptical of anything good coming out of this. Looking more and more like its going to be an all out civil war at this point, fueled by the EUROPEAN UNION and the USA on one side, and Russia on the other. The Ukrainians are stuck in the middle.