Putin isn’t going not going to have a choice on Donbas and Crimea. The people will throw him out. Would you want to be ruled by Putin’s crazies now given an option. Of course not. Nobody would. This isn’t 2014 and the world has changed.
True. A couple decades ago, Eastern Europeans threw out the Soviets really quickly once the Iron Curtain had collapsed.
This time though, they're all Putin's thugs and they rule by intimidation. Once people are no longer afraid, I guess their days are numbered.