I like this.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-05/rt-anchor-turns-down-offer-report-crimea-resigns-protest-biased-coverageToo bad our own jurnolistas are too corrupted by progressive ideology and too beholden to their cult leaders to perform similar random acts of common sense...
And here we go...I've been saying a partition might be the way to go, but this is more of a annexation ala Hitler marching his troops into the Sudetenland than a peaceful diplomatic understanding...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-06/crimea-parliament-accelerates-crisis-votes-join-russiaTwo rather stark bits of irony here...
1) I guess ol' Putin finds it OK to accept some gun-toting boots-on-the-ground scary thugs to secure one hunk of territory and call it legitimate (Crimea) while another (Kiev) is totally illegitimate even though the latter at least has a Parliament behind its actions...what does Putin have...just guys with weapons on territory historically never theirs in the first place?
2) How is "creating facts on the ground" in Crimea with these armed goons not several orders of magnitude worse than anything Israel has ever done in Judea that they and the rest of the tools at the UN accuse them of doing to the poor AK-47-toting Palestinians?
Oh, and once again, I want to harp on the utter uselessness of NATO! Talk about asleep at the switch! But both they and Russia are violating the December 5th 1994 Budapest Memorandum (aka Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons):
The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
Welcoming the accession of Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear-weapon State,
Taking into account the commitment of Ukraine to eliminate all nuclear weapons from its territory within a specified period of time,
Noting the changes in the world-wide security situation, including the end of the Cold War, which have brought about conditions for deep reductions in nuclear forces.
Confirm the following:
1.The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.
2.The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
3.The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.
4.The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.
5.The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm, in the case of the Ukraine, their commitment not to use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, except in the case of an attack on themselves, their territories or dependent territories, their armed forces, or their allies, by such a state in association or alliance with a nuclear weapon state.
6.The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will consult in the event a situation arises which raises a question concerning these commitments.
This Memorandum will become applicable upon signature.
Signed in four copies having equal validity in the English, Russian and Ukrainian languages.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ukraine._Memorandum_on_Security_AssurancesIt is obvious the Russians have been violating the economic coercion and territorial integrity clauses and that the US and Britain (basically NATO) are violating the pledge to Ukraine for the integrity of their borders and ensuring the sovereignty of their nation. One might quibble that there was an unspoken expiration date for said support, but seeing as that since the Soviet Union disintigrated Russia under Putin has been nothing but trying to regain her former size by proxy, so the agreement in a practical sense still looks to be in play.
God I loath feckless politicans and diplomats...what useless dreck!