I am beginning to believe that Russia will lose big time on this move. It will take months and years to realize the extent of the damage but it will be long and wide. First, “The whole world is watching.” factor is creating a PR nightmare. You can bet they have forced Kiev right into the arms of NATO, officially or not. Now, every former Soviet satellite is rushing into the arms of the United States. The US, France, Britain, The EU, and every nation southwest and west of Russia are now meeting secretly to ensure that they are ready to combat the bear. If Russia was paranoid before, they ought to be hearing voices in their heads now. Finally, if anyone thinks for a minute the Russian troops can invade with green helmets, then switch helmets to powder blue, then they’ve got rocks in their heads. The UN will send in peacekeepers and most of those troops will be European and American (you can bet that plenty of countries will step up for that assignment). And it will happen in the next six months and it will be an overwhelming number of “peacekeepers” and “humanitarians”. And speaking of rocks, how bout the people of Georgia...they could care less if Russia spans eight time zones and has 10,000 nuclear warheads.The Georgians have shown the world that freedom and democracy truly belongs to us all, not just the powerful. God bless them.
Sure hope you’re right....I’m pessimistic for that region of the Caucasus, don’t know how much lasting resistance there will be to increased Russian domination. But I am hopeful that at least the Ukraine and Baltic States should get more EU and NATO support and will become more integrated with the West.