So yea... that Ukrainian Naval base that the standoff happened at before. Seems like the Russians finally made it into the base and smashed up the electrical rooms so the rest of the base can't be used.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26408115
The G7 nations have cancelled all preparatory work for the G8 summit in response to Russia's actions and refusal to back down. They've issued a condemnation of Russia's military buildup. Looks like the G8 summit might not happen in Sochi later if this situation doesn't calm down.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26412914
A former ambassador to Russia has written a very long open letter regarding the situation in Russia. Among the issues he discusses is Russia's continued willingness to use force, in both brutal and efficient manners, flies right in the face of a continued western decline. Putin is counting on Western weakness. For some countries a show of strength may be necessary for them to back down though I don't think the EU, Obama (and by extension the uninformed American public) will have the political will for that. Money is the problem. The west have mostly become nations run by wealthy careerists who do not have the backbone to start the uncompromising show of strength necessary to reverse the Russian incursion into the Crimea. He also points out other Baltic nations may be in trouble if the West does not respond.
Excerpt from the article. I don't want to post too much of it.
Quote:
In a nutshell, Russia is fighting ruthlessly and brutally, and proving to all that the post-Cold War world has been replaced by the post-post-Cold War world in which Moscow no longer considers the current international order, law, and organizations competent to solve problems.
What is applicable then? From Moscow’s point of view, only force and the willingness to sacrifice human lives when force is applied.
Is the West willing to do that? That is extremely unlikely. It is one thing to mount military operations against Afghan poppy growers and quite another to accept the challenge of a nuclear power with the world’s largest territory and the richest deposits of natural resources, which feels cornered in a deepening confrontation with the West and is not going to surrender its habitats without a fight.
Moscow knows – and so does the West but it is not willing to admit it even to itself – that Western civilization in its decadence has reached the final stage of its degradation where only money and comfort count. Careerists and anglers, who are able to navigate the ship only in good weather, have risen to the top during decades of inert existence. They will lose their heads in a storm, and can only utter banalities and behave accordingly.
Oswald Spengler in his “The Decline of the West” predicted more than correctly that money will bring down Western democracy (that is exactly what has already happened), and then the power of money will be conquered by force. Europe, fighting for the rainbow flag and gender quotas, is a complete impotent in that respect; the United States, on the other hand, when considering intervening, is thinking about moves of a broader global game and must inevitably take into account that average Americans do not have a clue where someplace called Crimea is located. Moreover, the United States is tired of the problems of the rest of the world and wants to take a rest. And we do not know whether it intends to wake up and do something if a small country like Estonia screams for help at some point.
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http://www.businessinsider.com/mosco...-crimea-2014-3