Russophiles must certainly be happy. The 'West' cowardly, confused, dazed by Western European reliance on Russian energy, will do little to help what should be a country firmly inside NATO – itself an organization of dubious value. The Ukrainian east will likely be eaten by the Russian Tsar and cult, while the West frets about globaloneywarming; green technology; and how happy Gaia will be with our sacrifices and absurdities. If the Euros and Americans had an iota of rationality and confidence they would be developing carbon energy all over the non-Russified EurAsian landmass. But alas killing birds with wind turbines; and destroying topography with mindless solar panels is more important.
Britain and France fought once in the Crimea to limit Russian ambition and confine it to its Oriental satraps to the East. Crimean War.
Is peace a 'good' to be maintained at all costs ? Written in 2007 and prescient.
But the Russians, stubborn, proud, mischievous and sure of themselves never relented from imperial ambition. Dictatorial, non-Western and tyrannical regimes have ruled Russia for 1000 years. In 1917 they invent a fantasy ideology, a brother to the future fascism of Hitler, and named it Communism. The only communal aspect of Russian fascism was its shared mass misery and colossal piles of dead. Post 1989 we now have Putinism – a dictatorship by a gang in the Kremlin modeled on the old Tsars employing modern technology and Soviet style propaganda and controlling all industry deemed to be pertinent to national power.
As British Prime Minister Palmerston remarked in the mid 19th century [about the importance of the Crimea]: "Peace is an Excellent Thing, and War is a great Misfortune. But there are many things more valuable than Peace, and many things much worse than war. The maintenance of the Ottoman Empire belongs to the First Class, the Occupation of Turkey by Russia belongs to the Second." Palmerston saw Russia for what it was – a grasping anti-Western oriental power. [link]
Yesterday the Crimea. Tomorrow Donetsk. Next week Kharkiv. 3 years from now maybe some tender bits of Poland, Latvia, or Estonia will amaze and attract the hungry Tsarist cult in Moscow, and deflect domestic misery and ideas about 'freedom' to redound into the ether; as they focus the conscious spirit of Russians on empire.
It seems pretty clear given the complete lack of leadership in the 'West' that today we will hand over the bread-basket of Europe and focus on more important matters such as Gays being allowed to march in any parade they wish; or the 'rights' of Moslems to their own schools and public footbaths. Meanwhile the socialist-Marxist arena's of relativity including the useless UN and the chattering 'international community' do nothing, except insist that the real threat to the West is not the likes of Vlad the Sovieticus Man; or Islam; but merely our issuance of Co2.