Ukraine's European Revolution?

[Tamas]

Putin essentially got away with Georgia without paying much of a price. I'm pretty sure he thought much the same would happen over Ukraine, and things are not going as he expected.

The European response to Putin is a joke, 5 days after he launches his Crimean "peacekeeping" operation, the emergency meeting is finally taking place. Although to be fair to them, Putin did annex the place on a weekend.

Yes and I expect them to decide to meet again in two weeks to decide if they want to form a committee to discuss the possibility of creating a team which would write a sternly worded letter to Russia, in which they would assure Putin there would be no military action or meaningful sanctions.

[Malthus]

Putin essentially got away with Georgia without paying much of a price. I'm pretty sure he thought much the same would happen over Ukraine, and things are not going as he expected.

The European response to Putin is a joke, 5 days after he launches his Crimean "peacekeeping" operation, the emergency meeting is finally taking place. Although to be fair to them, Putin did annex the place on a weekend.

Fair enough, but it isn't the euro-response - or even the US response - that is screwing him, it is the markets. I wonder how the Russian billionaire oligarchs on whose support Putin relies feel about being several billion poorer for patriotic reasons of state.

Russian ruminations about nationalizing foreign investment isn't helping.

[Legbiter]

Yes and I expect them to decide to meet again in two weeks to decide if they want to form a committee to discuss the possibility of creating a team which would write a sternly worded letter to Russia, in which they would assure Putin there would be no military action or meaningful sanctions.

Boycott the Winter Paralympics. Maybe skip the G8 summit in Sochi, everybody's tired of that place already anyway.

[derspiess]

Yes and I expect them to decide to meet again in two weeks to decide if they want to form a committee to discuss the possibility of creating a team which would write a sternly worded letter to Russia, in which they would assure Putin there would be no military action or meaningful sanctions.

Don't forget the fact-finding mission!

[Jacob]

Yes and I expect them to decide to meet again in two weeks to decide if they want to form a committee to discuss the possibility of creating a team which would write a sternly worded letter to Russia, in which they would assure Putin there would be no military action or meaningful sanctions.

Don't forget the fact-finding mission!

If only the self-defense militias weren't keeping them out at gunpoint

[Kleves]

Boycott the Winter Paralympics.

I'm sure that would shake Putin to the very core. 

[Jacob]

From the BBC Ukraine feed:

The US military is sending 12 F-16 fighter jets to Poland for a training exercise, according to Polish media reports. The Polish defence ministry has not confirmed the reports, says Reuters.
Earlier, the US Air Force announced it was sending six additional F-15 jets to Lithuania to bolster the existing "Baltic Air Police" mission there.

[Admiral Yi]

Interesting factoid: none of the Baltic states has an air force.

[DGuller]

Interesting factoid: none of the Baltic states has an air force.

Sometimes I wonder why small countries even bother with an army.  Surely the only thing protecting them from invasion is an international opinion in any case, so why waste the money?

[Admiral Yi]

Sometimes I wonder why small countries even bother with an army.  Surely the only thing protecting them from invasion is an international opinion in any case, so why waste the money?

Contribution to the common good I figure.

I like the way Luxembourg does it: no armed forces of its own, but Luxembourgeois serve in the Belgian military.  Of course, on the down side, it's the Belgian military.

[Berkut]

Interesting factoid: none of the Baltic states has an air force.

Sometimes I wonder why small countries even bother with an army.  Surely the only thing protecting them from invasion is an international opinion in any case, so why waste the money?

To force a larger country to actually engage in violence in order to attack you, of course.

[grumbler]

Ukrainian-Russian Tensions Dividing U.S. Citizens Along Ignorant, Apathetic Lines
NEWS • Politics • World • Politicians • ISSUE 50•09 • Mar 3, 2014

WASHINGTON—According to a poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center, the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine has left Americans sharply and bitterly divided along ignorant and apathetic lines, with the nation's citizenry evenly split between grossly misinformed and wholly indifferent factions.

"The very real threat of a Russia-Ukraine war has completely polarized the general public, pitting two deeply entrenched blocs against one another: those who have absolutely no clue what they're talking about and those who couldn't care less," said Pew spokesman Andrew Collins, noting that the ouster of Ukraine's president Viktor Yanukovych and Russia's subsequent occupation of Crimea has inflamed tensions between the two sides to a level unseen since the height of the war in Syria. "This is not a distinctly regional or socioeconomic split, either. We're seeing local workplaces, friends, even online fora ripped in two by their desire to either ignore the whole thing completely or spout an inane, half-witted opinion on it like they're some geopolitical expert."

"And as the situation develops and Western powers become more involved, these divisions will only appear more stark," he added. "In the coming weeks, we can expect to hear a growing cacophony of uninformed and harebrained calls for action or restraint from one side, and absolutely nothing at all from the other."

Results of the poll found that the two sides are at odds on nearly every facet of the crisis, from last week's protests in Kiev, to Ukraine's freeing of former president Yulia Tymoshenko, to Russian president Vladimir Putin's invasion of the Crimean Peninsula in defiance of Western warnings, with neither group seeing eye-to-eye on any of the developments' significance—or whether they even have any significance to begin with.

Additionally, nearly half the U.S. public has put forth numerous breathtakingly naive potential solutions to the crisis—which range from economic sanctions on Russia, to economic sanctions on Ukraine, to deploying the U.S. military to the "middle of Asia" to solve the standoff—while an equal number of Americans firmly and repeatedly stated their commitment to not giving a shit one way or the other.

Furthermore, sources are reporting that the deep ideological rift over the Russia-Ukraine conflict is visible in nearly every community and place of work across the country, with disinterested and misinformed Americans confirming they have repeatedly come into conflict in recent days.

"It's incredibly frustrating to try to talk some sense into someone who doesn't realize that Crimea's very freedom as an independent nation is at stake," said completely ignorant Languishite "Ideologue," who admitted that he has clashed constantly in the past week over Ukraine with his staunchly apathetic fellow forumite "grumbler." "Talking to him is like talking to a brick wall. It's almost as if he doesn't even want to hear how Putin was kicked out of Ukraine by his own people and then retaliated by invading Crimea. Frankly, no matter how much I tell him that Obama's this close to breaking his silence and issuing a warning to Russia, it's just not getting through to him."

"The bottom line is that Ide's views aren't going to affect my opinion," said grumbler of his forum-mate's constant uneducated opinions about John Kerry's upcoming trip to Kiev and his bizarre personal assertion that the invasion happened "suspiciously close to the Olympics." "My mind's made up, and I completely stand by my lack of interest in this issue. So Ide should just keep his mouth shut and let this situation—whatever it is—play out."

According to reports, most Americans see little chance of the warring camps coming to any sort of reconciliation any time soon, as supporters on both sides appeared committed in their respective efforts to either gravely misconstrue the complicated crisis in Ukraine or remain checked out of the issue entirely. Still, some experts are holding out hope that the two groups may be able to someday see eye-to-eye on the thorny issue of Ukrainian sovereignty and Russian aggression.

"As startling as these two factions' differences may seem at first, there's still opportunity for the two sides to come together and reach a compromise on the Ukraine conflict," said Collins. "When it comes to the situation in Crimea, there's a middle ground between ignorance and apathy on this issue that I think all Americans could happily live with."

[alfred russel]

Sometimes I wonder why small countries even bother with an army.  Surely the only thing protecting them from invasion is an international opinion in any case, so why waste the money?

The purpose of a military is often less about repelling external threats and more about internal ones.

Also, just having a military serve as a speedbump to a foreign invader has a purpose.

[derspiess]

http://www.rusmilitary.com/

As seen on TV - "unidentified gunmen" in Crimea wear Russian Digital Flora BDU (£84) and carry AK-74M assault rifles (£595) and PKM machne guns (from £1,635)

[Razgovory]

Sometimes I wonder why small countries even bother with an army.  Surely the only thing protecting them from invasion is an international opinion in any case, so why waste the money?

The purpose of a military is often less about repelling external threats and more about internal ones.

Also, just having a military serve as a speedbump to a foreign invader has a purpose.

Costa Rica abolished it's military due to the fact that it was an internal threat.  They've since become the most stable state in Central America.