Ukraine's European Revolution?

[OttoVonBismarck]

It'll be interesting to see what variation of the "do nothing" response we and the EU followed during Russia's belligerence in the South Ossetia war we go with here. It'll be even more shameful considering I expect Crimea to be actually annexed by Russia.

[derspiess]

South Ossetia was annexed after it declared independence, wasn't it?  Or did I read your post wrong?

[Grinning_Colossus]

South Ossetia and Abkhazia are theoretically independent countries.

[derspiess]

For some reason I was thinking Russia had formally annexed South Ossetia-- I guess not.

[DGuller]

Well, 2000 Russian more troops landed in Crimea.  I guess we know now why the Russians needed those airports.

[derspiess]

Creepy.

Also, Zhirinovsky had flown into Crimea and is stuck there-- apparently he can't fly back out and is blaming Kiev

[OttoVonBismarck]

South Ossetia was annexed after it declared independence, wasn't it?  Or did I read your post wrong?

You're right in practice but yeah, "legally" South Ossetia is its own country in the same way we may find that Ukraine was its own country.

(It's questionable about the legality of South Ossetia as virtually no one aside from Russia and a few of its closest cronies recognize it as an independent State, the broader international community views it the same way they do Turkish Cyprus or etc.)

[OttoVonBismarck]

This is why I blame no country for wanting nuclear weapons or wanting to keep them. If Ukraine had kept even a small part of its nuclear stockpile they could send the Russians the fuck out of their country with a single word.

[derspiess]

http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-11-airports-seized/

2134 GMT: Russian blogger Lev Shlosberg who writes for the newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya has written this report today at 4:42 pm (translated by The Interpreter) that says that Russian "Officers and Contractors of the 76th Chernihov (Pskov) Storm Troops Division" are now in Ukraine:
According to one of the participants in the operation, officers and contractors of the 76th Shock Troops Division have been re-locating to Ukrainian territory since last week. By early this week, there were already more than 100 soldiers. The last of the famous detachments was sent on Thursday, 27 February. They are fully armed, with 5,000 rounds of ammunition per person. There is one truck per 10 soldiers, and they are completely loaded with weapons including flame-throwers. Upon arrival on the territory of Ukraine, they did not report their geographical locations to people, and they were assigned local tasks. Most likely, this was Sevastopol and Simferopol. Emergency troops remain in Yysk, and did not take part in the operation. The barracks of the 76th Storm Troops Division on Margelova Street in Pskov is practically empty.

[DGuller]

This is why I blame no country for wanting nuclear weapons or wanting to keep them. If Ukraine had kept even a small part of its nuclear stockpile they could send the Russians the fuck out of their country with a single word.

I don't know.  I wonder how this works out when the push comes to shove.  It's very hard to launch a missile when you know it will likely end the world.  In such a situation, the most convincingly crazy player wins.

[Jacob]

For some reason I was thinking Russia had formally annexed South Ossetia-- I guess not.

If they pass that law about a local referendum being enough, it'll probably happen soon enough.

[Barrister]

For some reason I was thinking Russia had formally annexed South Ossetia-- I guess not.

If they pass that law about a local referendum being enough, it'll probably happen soon enough.

I don't know about that.

The Russians were very deliberate in what they did with Georgia (and with Moldova / Transnistria) is recognizing independence movements, and not annexing territory.  They figure they're doing the same as what the West was doing in supporting other independence movements in the former Yugoslavia.

Annexing a place like Abkhazia though... that means Russia was engaged in a war of territorial expansion.  Putin seems loathe to do that.

I think Putin is just doing some heavy sabre-rattling and will eventually withdraw (much as he did in Georgia of course) after proving his point.  But in the event I'm wrong he's more likely to follow his own example of supporting Crimean "independence", rather than annexing the territory directly.

[derspiess]

For some reason I was thinking Russia had formally annexed South Ossetia-- I guess not.

If they pass that law about a local referendum being enough, it'll probably happen soon enough.

I still think it'd be funny if some crappy little country that Russia doesn't actually want holds a referendum and then automatically becomes part of Russia.  Then I suppose there is probably some language written into the law that would prevent that.

[Queequeg]

What makes you think the Crimea is crappy?  It's been the summer destination for Russian potentates since the time of Catherine. 

[Ed Anger]

Sigh.