by Jack
Russian agents working closely with Crimean dissidents staged a phoney uprising at Ukraine’s largest naval base in the Crimea. The base was quickly taken over by well armed militia members. This was the final act in a bold series of events Vladimir Putin initiated in order to seize the Crimea peninsula, without direct Russian military intervention. It was quick, decisive and relatively bloodless.
Looking back at the time-line of political provocations coming from Moscow its quite clear how well thought out this action was. It began slowly in 2013 with Pro-Russian dissidents, just inside Ukraine’s border, claiming they needed protection from Ukrainian nationalist, a Russian military probe of Ukraines territory tested the world’s response and then they pulled back.
When the pro-Russian president of Ukraine tried to get cozy with 
Moscow voters took to the streets and he was sent packing. This allowed the opportunity for Putin to escalate the situation and a large military force capable of an invasion on placed on Ukraine’s border. But the real object was further to the South, the Crimea, a small but strategic naval base where Russian warships now paid dock rent to Kiev. Using the cold war tactics of creating internal turmoil, this eventually led to the complete annexation of the Crimea, presumably at the request of the pro-Russians residents and of course to maintain security in the region. Putin took to the podium and said he had no choice but to protect Russian citizens from Ukrainian thugs.
Like tumbling dominoes this was a clever and highly calculated series of fast moving events to seize the Crimea.
Western democracies attempting to debate how to best to respond could not keep up with the fast evolving escalations orchestrated by Moscow and President Putin.
Putin, the political chess master, had easily out foxed the Obama Administration and took European leaders by complete surprise.
But, it’s not over yet and Moscow’s trump card has yet to be played, military invasion of Kiev and eventually returning the Ukraine to Russian control. Would Putin risk an all out war with the West? Probably not, but then he doesn’t have too! Putin’s anouncement to the world, that Russia is the only country in the world with the power to turn the USA into dust gives a hint how concerned he is about USA intervention.
So, Putin has scoffed at the tepid sanctions so far. And he knows that a Russian invasion of the Ukraine under the pretext of reinstalling Ukraine’s “duly elected” deposed president would go largely unchallenged. Putin believes a blitzkrieg like attack on Kiev could quickly return the former Moscow puppet back to power and that is the next phase of this crisis. The question is, will he do it, will he take the risk? The world waits to see.