But my position is that, why bother letting Crimea be independent and risk constant outside interference, when annexing makes it so if anyone tries anything, it'll be seen as an attack on Russia directly? So annexing it would be a more appealing option to further enforce its security. Not to mentioned as I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of shale gas within the region of Crimea borders which becomes Russian resources upon annexing.
But I can see the alternative of independence being a compromise option if Russia feels it's under too much pressure. Problem is, Russia has its gas exports to leverage against the EU, so the EU doesn't really have a position of threatening Russia with significant sanctions enough to warrant that. The U.S isn't in too much of a position to threaten Russia either, considering how aggressive Russia can retaliate economically.
That's probably why Russia will be rather bold about their moves. They're not in a position to be severely threatened right now (at least not enough for the west to risk doing so) and they know it.
I agree, it's just that I keep seeing people bangin them war drums, making paralels to the first similar event that comes to mind "omg its WW3!" but these kinds of events happen often. Peru made incursions into Ecuador twice after allready annexing half their landmass back in 1941. Nobody gave a shit (except heartbroken Ecuadorian and Peruvian berieveds). No world wars erupted
Ukraine is not allied with anybody, it stands alone. Russia is a VETO nation breaking UN Rules. Have we seen this before? Oh yeah, every damn day since USA has been a UN member.
Even if Russia were to pour into Ukraine, full force, it doesn't mean a cataclysmic domino effect, ala Hitler. I've seen on other forums, especially in Lithuania, there are "kremlin-trolls" causing ruckus on the internet, Russians are warned against travelling there, and Lithuanians in general are made into bad-guys. This worries people, and again, they associate with the next similar thing they know. Russia is notorious for dick-waving gestures, hell they once moved _thousands_ of MBT's to the Norwegian border, scaring the piss out of the frontier guards there. We can't lose our cool. We have to see reality for what it is NOW, not freak out over what it might turn into, in the worst possible scenario.
Hell, worst case scenario is that Obama nukes Moscow, Moscow nukes America, and China nukes everybody.
Ghouls roam the earth