So, Putin has actually sent troops into the Ukrainian region of Crimea, that little peninsula on the Black Sea that is only tenuously connected to Ukraine geographically. Lots of Russians live there, and there are a couple of Russian military bases, like there is a U.S. military base on Cuba.
This is a huge dick move on the part of Putin, who is swiftly cementing his reputation as the biggest Russian dick leader since… I don’t know, maybe Brezhnev. A couple of my facebook friends compared it to the Germans going into the Sudetenland in 1939, which would make Obama into Neville Chamberlain.
Putin’s bellicose attitude is probably not causing him any trouble with Russian voters. That kind of thing can play very well with the home crowd. It was not so long ago that the U.S. had such a leader. The world basically stood back and watched the disaster unfold.
The world will do the same with Putin, because there really aren’t a lot of options. This article in Think Progress lists 5 possible U.S. reactions. I liked 1 and 2, thought 3 unnecessarily punished the Russian people and would actually strengthen Putin’s hand, thought #4 was a no-brainer, and #5 downright counterproductive. But, I’m glad some people are thinking beyond the war/no war paradigm.
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