This is disturbing:
Russian politicians and analysts have started using loaded language when talking about what to do with Ukraine and its intractable protesters. Recently, a former advisor to Russian president Vladimir Putin, political scientist Andrey Illarionov, opined that Russia is extremely eager to seize Ukrainian territory. According to Illarionov, Moscow’s propaganda machine is running at top speed in order to prepare for such an outcome. He quoted Kremlin sources as saying, “we should wait ‘til the Sochi 2014 Olympics start and then set about finding the solution to the Ukrainian Question.”
There is talk of Russia responding to requests for help from pro-Russian people inside Ukraine. Which can be easily manufactured even if you can't find somebody to issue the call for help.
The article speaks of what I discussed--taking the eastern part of Ukraine and the south, especially Crimea.
But could Russia's military pull this off? They pulled off Georgia, snatching pieces of that country. But Georgia is small and the war was more difficult than the Russians perhaps anticipated.
Of course, if the Russian winter military exercises Zapad-13 were a dress rehearsal for Ukraine, the Russians could be good to go to snatch the east and south and dare Ukraine's military to do something about it.
I don't assume that the Sochi Olympics start provided a safe zone for Ukraine.
So just what is the status of that Chinese nuclear guarantee to Ukraine?
UPDATE: Oh, yeah. Dial me to 11:
A senior Kremlin aide accused the United States on Thursday of arming Ukrainian "rebels" and, urging the Kiev government to put down what he called an attempted coup, warned Russia could intervene to maintain the security of its ex-Soviet neighbor.
This isn't just nonsense. This is an expression of a Russian capability.
Russia blamed us for the Georgia War of 2008, saying we intervened first.
And I called that capability before the Russians trotted it out.
And Russia captured more "evidence" in that war to plant if they want to blame us for the Ukraine War of 2014.
