[PieterCasparzen]

“So do you think they are going to pussyfoot around when Obama and the GOP start shipping food while Ukraine saves the cash for more weapons/other uses?”

Our foreign policy is based on American national interests, not Russia’s. I don’t give a flying truck what the Russians think.

I don't see many strong sanctions coming, cuz it would boomerang back and hurt American businesses.

They've no doubt let the administration know the realities of the situation.

Below is a small sample of just US businesses operating in Ukraine; there are a lot more operating in Russia.

http://www.adm.com/en-US/worldwide/ukraine/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.deere.ua/wps/dcom/uk_UA/regional_home.page

http://www.caseih.com/ru_int/Pages/home.aspx

http://www.aig.ua/_1025_220751.html

http://www2.dupont.com/Ukraine_Country_Site/uk_UA/

This older article points out some concerns:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-business-idUSBREA2I1TQ20140319

From the article:

The Chamber of Commerce, another Washington-based business group, said it was closely monitoring the crisis over Crimea and called for close cooperation with Europe given it's annual trade with Russia is about 15 times larger than that of the United States.

"A go-it-alone approach by the United States could be both economically damaging and ineffective in accomplishing its goals," said the Chamber's Vice President Myron Brilliant, who oversees international affairs for the group.

[Norm Lenhart]

That was my quote actually.

Businesses can say/ do whatever. But if we ship supplies and Putin decides it is an act of war, his people will quickly pull russian businesses in the ‘correct’ mindframe. Just as Russian leaders have done for centuries.

Let us not forget that the mere threat of sanctions has a massive effect on financial markets and each such threat costs many dollars to all involved. Eventually all involved will tire of perpetual instability...coming from our impotence.