Russia Proceeds as Planned
And Obama really isn’t happy.
Ukrainian leaders fear that Russia won’t stop with annexing Crimea. The AFP reports, “Saturday’s takeover [of a Ukrainian air base] involving armoured personnel carriers and stun grenades provided the most spectacular show of force since the Kremlin sent troops into the heavily Russified peninsula three weeks ago before sealing its annexation Friday.” One official warned, “The aim of Putin is not Crimea but all of Ukraine.” But never fear, Barack Obama keeps yammering about “imposing a cost” on Russia and that Putin will “pay a price” for continued aggression. One such cost is the possible expulsion of Russia from the G-8. We expect that will continue working about as well as Obama’s previous pronouncements of very serious dislike.