About 2 hours and world will know what he wants.

Russia has a naval base in Crimea where they keep their fleet... and it's pretty much the only place Russia can keep their western navy as northern ports freeze over too often to be reliable.

Basically to lose Crimea is to lose all western europeon naval capabilties.

Seems awful conspiracy theoristish, espiecally considering just how much of a disaster the Ukraine has been.

There were plenty of reasons for revolution without the need for provocation.

It's been no secret the Ukraine was about to default hard.  Meanwhile, the president was skimming off the top pretty heavily.

I mean... it is if you count all the US troops stationed in it.

Christ, the US Military wastes so much money.

There are rumours that Ukrainan and Russian soldiers have engaged outside of Crimea. Don't know if those are true or not.

The analysis of Putin's general objective is correct, it's just that in this case, it's not what's trying to be achieved... at least, not directly.

After thinking about it a bit, it seems to be more of a pre-emptive strike in an attempt to secure Crimea as a naval base in the black sea. You can be sure that the fascists in the Kiev Rada will want to cancel that agreement - and who knows how soon. The secondary objective is to incite unrest in pro-Russian parts of Ukraine - so far it seems to be successful (but ultimately gainless for the people doing it, or Russia). Odessa and Donetsk Radas have been taken over, both have Russian flags hanging over them now.

However, for current Ukraine, going the way of the EU or association with it, means a Bosnian or Moldavian scenario, so honestly, whichever government, whichever president, it always seems to be a lose-lose situation, really... one is a spineless fuckup (Yanukovich), the forthcoming ones are just suicidal.

As the Nazi-groups are part of the new Maidan-government, thepolice and army is doing nothing against them. Europe should pressure the Ukraine, to make fair and free elections possible. And yes, the russian invasion isn't helping.

Not totally correct because the new goverment (the one from last week) accepted that the Russia naval fleet can stay their.

Sure at the moment... but it's not like Russia can just take their word for it.

Eventually the new elected goverment would force the fleet to leave, since they aren't in Russia's pocket like Yanu.

Probably right after they agreed to a full Nato integration.

Janukowitsch did that all the time. But protest started, as he decided that the offers from Russia about avoiding the default seem better than the one from the EU. And we already know, that the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (a foundation linked to the governing german party CDU) financed some groups at the Maidan.