Ukraine VI: Crimea in the Center (AKA Putin's) pocket

[snake]

Well, the sanctions are coming. From the US anyway.

The larger problem on the sanctions front is that Europe are the ones that need to do most of that since that's where the Russian money is. And the EU right now is doing their usual indecisive dithering.

And you can't avoid military conflict. It's already happened. There was an invasion and annexation of a chunk of Ukraine. Whether it gets bigger is more the question and that's alot more dependant on Russia then anyone else. Do they regard this as a game of brinkmanship or not basically.

You are right that it's the EU that will determine how far this goes. The US are kind of out of the equation, outside of rhetorical arrows.

We can avoid greater military conflict and again the West shall have a role to play in how far this escalates. Russia sees the encroachment by the West in Ukraine and Georgia as an existential threat and are apparently willing to go to great lengths to thwart it. Maybe they're willing to go all the way. Are we I wonder? Is Europe??

[Maithanet]

Moidrag,

You have mentioned the talks between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, several times. Are you referring to this interview, likely taped and released by the Russians? Because while it does make the US look bad (diplomats generally try and avoid saying things like "Fuck the EU"), nothing about this is a smoking gun of...anything that I can see. What I learned is that the US is monitoring what is happening in the Ukraine, and trying to get various coalitions together to get a result that benefits the US. That's what diplomacy is. And to act like this is unprecedented is...strange.

If this is indeed as incriminating as you have claimed, could you quote the relevant passage, and say why you think it indicates that the US is acting illegally (or even inethically)? Because to me, there's nothing there.