Then who are the guys in green?

Still, the US wished their invasions went as well as this.  Most peaceful non-invasion invasion I have ever seen. 

???? What????

Let's start with ancient history:  Kievan Rus' was a loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century, under the reign of the Rurik dynasty. The modern peoples of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural inheritance. -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus'

The territory that is today the Ukraine was later under influence by mongols, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland and Russia, at least in parts. Remember, no nation Ukraine was built up to this point, the terrotories were under different influences. Since 1654 parts of the eastern Ukraine (a terroritory much smaller than the Ukraine of today) was russian. -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-bank_Ukraine

The western part of the Ukraine came later also under russian influence, with the partitions of Poland. The southern parts were conquered by Russia from the Turks or more precise the Krim-tartars. These territories were named Novorossiya. -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya  (Notice that Novorossiya is only the southern parts of todays Ukraine, the northern parts are marked as russian empire on the map.)

Only after the communist revolution in Russia the first Ukrainian state was founded: the Ukrainian People's Republic. That was the first Ukrainian nation. -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_People's_Republic

You really think Russians were 'imported' in the time of the Soviet Republic? Think again.

Yeah.  It's less the russian's were imported in, so much as the ethnic ukranians were starved to deathy by stalin and shipped around.

You totally ignored the Ukrainian Cossacks as well.

Who totally did have their  own nation.

Though they did align themselves with Russia, and Russia eventually betrayed them as russian leadership often is wont to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossack_Hetmanate

That said, if I were the Ukraine i'd just cut and run with Crimea.

Let Russia have it and just immediatly take the rest of the ukraine into NATO.

Here's a  question... did you check the email addresses?  Would the advisor of the Lithuianian government use an @delfi.net tag?   @delfi.net is a public internet company.

That would be like if the CIA ran it's black ops through AOL, even though AOL could read all and have those emails and has shoddy security.  Or maybe Namepro.CA since delfi is actully an estonian email address.

If the emails were genuine at the very least it would be at "lrv.lt."  If it were some big US conspiracy he'd probably have a specific US.gov email address... that hey, probably doesn't have his name right out there like that.

I mean hell, Klitschko has his own private email server, the government of Lithuiania doesn't?

They're poorly made fakes relying on conspiracy theory sites, and main stream meadia being too lazy to bother to even do the slightest bit of fact checking.

Outside that it's a case of conflicting conspiracy theories.  The Nuland phonecall more or less exposes those emails as fakes.  Or at least, their importance exagerted.

You don't go through the trouble of directly funding a puppet party and puppet leader then specifically talk about trying to convince him to NOT be head of the country, espeically when polls show him to be the front runner.

That said.  The Ukraine isn't like Aremnia and those other countries.  The Ukraine is vital to Russia's well being on a much higher level, because Crimea is the only place to station their black sea fleet.

Loss of it would more or less make it impossible to have a Western fleet.   They don't want the Ukraine in a customs union.   They want the Ukraine to be a part of russia again, either offically or unofficially like South Ossetia.

They would be better off losing parts of actual russia then they would crimea.

As for the past.  THe Ukraine has only been indepedent since 1991, and didn't get a consitution ratified until 1996.  After decades and decades poor russian management, ethinic cleansing.  The worst of which being the Holomodor under Stalin.

Another name of which in Ukrainian is "Famine Genocide". 

So wait, the leaks are fake because of the email address? Because, you know, that'd be a very easy thing to change for the leakers. So that's a suspiciously dumb mistake (if it is one), considering they actually used a plausible domain for Klitschko. Are you also one of the people that deny US involvement in the Orange Revolution?

Russia actually has territory on the Black Sea. So the assertion that Crimea is the only place for their fleet is false. Especially when one takes into account the lease into 204X, which gives Russia plenty of time to develop a base in their own territory. Also, talk of Russia not wanting Ukraine in the Customs Union is nonsense. There have been many talks within Russia and Ukraine of that happening.

It's unfair to blame current Russia for the deeds of the Soviet government. Holodomor happened before WWII; is it fair to blame current Germany for things done by the Nazis? Regardless of what you (and many others) say, Russia has been a very good ally to Ukraine.

The cossack hetmanate was no ukrainian nation, it was a cossack nation. The people in the Ukraine that live now are successors of polish people, tatars (and a lot more) - and russians.

The cossack hetmanate was no ukrainian nation, it was a cossack nation. The people in the Ukraine that live now are successors of polish people, tatars (and a lot more) - and russians. They all are Ukrainian people. So still my answer to JazzB is - that these ukrainian people that feel russian are living there since generations. These different ethnics are the reason for the problems the Ukraine has. To solve them, you should make a politics that include all, not discriminate russians or tatars or someone else. The uprising at the maidan clearly was one-sided and ignored the people in the east. If the people at maidan don't want russians in the ukraine, they should let the eastern ukraine get independence.