Some more news on this issue... Seems that it wasn't golden fund of Ukraine. New 'authorities' send to USA Ukraines/USSR/Russias museum funds, a big part of it was the gold of skyths. Hopefully this maggots who are saying they are 'manage' Ukraine now will burn in hell with this gold in their throats... ((((

Hmm, things are strange. I notice a change in the news here in germany. It starts to be less one sided. Mainstream media are reporting about the decision to let crimean people freely choose their nationality, if referendum ends in favor of russia. Victims of the maidan shootings arrived in germany, to get medical help. The news bit about that included, that the victims are protesters and police officers and cited our foreign minister Steinbrück, that at maidan protesters and police were shooting at each other. A week ago that all was really one-sided, only police was shooting protesters. Is that a good or a bad sign? Maybe our leaders in europe realized the US has different interest, and they don't want to be involved in the coming war? That would be a bad sign, that war indeed is planned. Maybe I interprete it too much....

Mainstream press also has now a different stance on abilities of ukrainian army. They argued a week back, that ukraine is another enemy than russia faced in ossetia. Ukranian army has 160,000 soldiers, while russian army has 800,000, so ukraine could offer a fierce fight. Today I read about the troop mobilization in ukraine, but it includes doubts about the abilities. They even say, that as the people the army is split between pro-russian and anti-russian soldiers. So they conclude, the mobilization might be a test to see how much of the army is even reacting to orders from kiev. That might be a good sign.

And I also heard about Blackwater (they have another name now, Academi I think). But I read they surfaced in Donetsk.

All in all very mixed signs. If nothing happens until sunday and the referendum goes undisturbed, I will feel better, but for now I have doubts it will stay peaceful.

Got some news from friends at Crimea. Now some bands of masked people breaking into people houses, searching for passports and destroying them. It seems somebody trying to stop the referendum by all means... (((

Yes, of course it is. Of course these people are with the US, of course the US is behind it all in a terrible conspiracy and aainst freedom of choice... or perhaps all these news articles of dubious sources are popping up in Russia so Puttin seems righteous when he chooses to invade Ukraine... cmon... you are such easy targets to manipulate.  

Bolded: he didn't say that.

Underlines: see underlined in Sharus post.

Italic: I don't know what currently to make from the news. But I know here are no 'good' sides. Russia, EU and the USA have all their interest. And in the Ukraine the interest of EU and US don't align. Not one of these three powers are interested in the people of the ukraine, human rights or international law. They all proved that in the past. Our former german chancellor Schröder has surprisingly supported Putin - with the claim that the invasion in Jugoslawia he did was also against international law. Also the powers in the ukraine aren't acting in the interest of the people: Timoschenkos tries to get back the power she lost in democratic elections. The Nazis (Swoboda and the right sector) try to get power through force - at least to let other parties make decisions in their direction. The crimean government also tries to gain more power and hoping to get it through russia. The pro-russian groups also want more local power and use the currentsituation. The oligarchs have arranged with kiew-government, to gain more money from the already nearly bankrupt country. Yanukovich tries to get back into power to get his share of riches - so does Timoschenko. Is there one single group involved in this conflict that acts in the interest of the ukrainian people? I can't see them. And you say we all are easily manipulated - while you are believing the propaganda of one side without any hesitation.

You keep talking about precedent and proved before. I know everyone has their interests, but you cant use past examples against the current leaders. Leaders in democratic countries change. The people in power now are not the people in power a long time ago. Even in the case of the US, its not Bush anymore, its Obama. How can you claim to know the values of people that werent there before? Your generalisation is way too convenient.

I am convinced that are leaders in europe that are honestly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Of course, their duty is for the people of their country though. It doesnt mean they are these inhumane people you paint them out to be. None of these people will be in power in 10 years, they dont have any nefarious agenda. Thats not something that can be said about the current leader of russia.

Well, I surely hope he does as I don't see anyone who can successfully replace him on his position, and by that I mean his position on the world scene, i.e. any politician in Russa or any other country (oh well, maybe, not "any", but "any country that matters").

Of course, the choice between Putin and -- how to even word that correctly? not-Putin -- is indeed a sucky choice, but who said the choices are always good? In fact, most of the time they suck, while this one is pretty darn good actually. You'd need to replace Putin with not-Putin once and you'll see the glaring and horrendous difference. Unfortunately, in other countries the situaion is much worse, they choose between one nonsense and another nonsense, one irrelevance and another irrelevance, one not-Putin and another not-Putin -- and THAT's a sucky choice.

And you call others easily manipulated.

Will you please say it Ukrainian internet warriors? :D Because I can't, they've banned right away me for saying this! By now they're discussing the plans of occupation of Russia by Ukrainian military. And I'm not even kidding.

Well, you can attack parts of your own country. That happened a lot. Called civil war. As the people on south and eastern ukraine currently feel more safe with Moscow than Kiev, the military would actually attack parts of the own country. Still you are right, the russian military would also be target, but you can be sure civilians will die, as like it happens always.

And I hope you're right that the US isn't willing to get into war with russia. And I hope the Ukraine doesn't try that themself. Let's see how it turns out.