actually, Im not ethnic russian, moreover my homeland North Caucasus was not a part of Russia at those times, and even more we fought with Russian Empire too just after Crimea was conquered, we fought up to 1864. But hey, I do know history and we have to respect it.
I wonder why mr.Putin doesn't understand that? I'm sure China might also pretend for some of their historical territories owned but carelessly neglected by Russian government. The capture of Ukraine's territory make a bad precedent for Russia first place.
Russia has no laws that permit the government to kill a Russian without a conviction or hold them indefinitely without charging them with any crime. Bush said that U.S. Constitution is just a piece of paper, Obama proved it.
mr.Putin is a bright guy, he outplayed everyone here, US, EU, and Ukraine + he gained his approval rate inside his country. But Im still not a fan of him. If Ukraine would have gone to NATO, he would lose Crimean naval base, and he would be a loser. That's what I think. Its all about the base, not the "russians get hurt" cr*p that is shown on TV for zombies.
I have no idea on this circumstance. Anyway, I hope to see the people there come back to their normal life soonest. That's I concern.
That is an amazing thing really, on a sociological level. Nationalism is a powerful motivator and most people from almost any country, in my opinion, generally do not give a crap about the right or wrong of their nation's actions, only about the greatness of their nation. Hitler was wildly popular with the German people as they rounded up Jews, stripped them of their belongings, and gassed them. All the Germans saw was a man with a carefully crafted media image that portrayed him as powerful and nationalistic and, of course, the gold was flowing in from looted countries. I don't imagine he ever did any photos with his shirt off, harpooning a whale or anything like that, so props to Putin for originality. If he rolled troops into the Ukraine, he would likely be more popular than ever with the Russians. My entire family on my fathers side is only one generation removed from the USSR(Black sea region of the Ukraine) by way of Canada. My siblings and I are the first generation in my family not to speak Ukrainian. Its not Russian but Taiwan comes to mind. I'd like to think that, if China pulled a Russia on Taiwan, the world would do something about it. I wouldn't count on it though. The days of pax Americana are over.
Many russians would approve that and even blame him for not sending troops to eastern Ukraine. I wouldn't call them clever though, it would be a long term partisan war with much more casualties than it is now, so I'm glad he didn't do that. Some of our politicians even say that it was the real goal of US to get russian troops to Ukraine to fight with each other, I dunno about this, maybe, maybe. They constantly repeat that US spent $5 bln on Ukraine. With all this anti-US propaganda its hard to decide whether its true or not. However if Im not mistaken there's a video of US official who says that number.
It is very different when someone or a group engage in illegal or criminal action than making anti-democratic and criminal actions as part of the law of the land. It has been an accepted principal in all civilized countries and not so civilized countries that there should be laws that won´t permit killing and imprisoning of citizens without trial and conviction, but USA has turned back the clock for centuries and has made absolute dictatorship legal and as part of law which make it possible for some bureaucrats to kill anyone they like and be protected by law. Murder is not murder when the government commits it.