[Pointman]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

I'm not sure which you were watching, but a lot of the news up here a lot of it was the corrupt president who stole $70 billion dollars from Ukrainians over three years and a triumph over corruption. CNN isn't the best new source for example.

I was reading bbc and guardian mostly, such as this Guardian's arcticle 7 days ago, which states that[I] "there's little doubt Russia feels badly cheated" any." and The Russian president is under growing western pressure not to act rashly in Ukraine after the toppling of Russia's ally, Viktor Yanukovych, and the opposition's triumphal clean sweep.

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Let's not be naive here about the plans either, something as tactically sophisticated as an invasion doesn't get planned overnight. You would need to know which buildings to seize, which areas needed to be secured and the logistics of how to move your troops. Targets and key locations need to be identified (as well as their geo location), infrastructure needs to be identified, route planning needs to occur, communications and how to misinform regarding identity of troops needs to be planned. Invasions are tricky business and usually take weeks if not months of coordinated planning. All that combined with how well the press communications happen as well as how coordinated all the troop activity was leaves no doubt about the quality of the planning involved. Given the timelines involved, the plans were probably drawn up prior to the Olympics at minimum.

I'm no military expert, but I'm almost sure that such plans were written years ago, as well, as many other military plans to attack or defend. There was 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. There were some other lesser troubles over there. I believe that Russian military has worked out the "what if another revolution will happen in Ukraine and Crimea would be in danger" scenario long ago. Crimea is right at Russia's borders, it's not like invading Iraq or Kosovo where the first step is find out Iraq on the World Map.