Europe faced with "the biggest threat since the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968"

[mota bhai 2,675]

by Rajeev Sharma Mar 3, 2014

The snowballing Ukrainian crisis threatens to be a game-changing global event that no major power in the world ... can afford to ignore. The fast-paced unfolding events in Ukraine have the potential to revive yet another Cold War era between the familiar adversaries – the United States and Russia.

...

What makes the current Ukrainian crisis a high-stake strategic gamble for the two sides – Washington and Russia – is the fact that both sides have ample reasons for not blinking.

...

The Russians are feeling the heat and are apprehensive of the Western world’s designs in their very backyard: Ukraine. For Putin, Ukraine is a no-go area as far as the West and NATO are concerned. If Ukraine is allowed to drift away from the centuries-old Russian influence, it would be curtains for Moscow. This clearly is the strategic consideration of Putin which is propelling his Ukraine policy.

For the US-led West, Ukraine is not just another far-off country in the Caucasus. It is right there in Europe where NATO is hyperactive and is keen to have Ukraine in its fold.

The Russian act of sending its troops into Crimea and seizing control of this only ethnic Russian-dominant region of Ukraine is an alarm bell that the West can ignore at its own peril. With its Crimea act and the authorization that Putin has got from the Russian parliament to use military force to protect Russian interests in Ukraine, Russia has made its intentions clear.

It is against this backdrop that the battle lines are clearly drawn between the US-led West and Russia.

For Europe, the ongoing developments in Ukraine constitute the biggest threat since the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

http://www.firstpost.com/world/another-cold-war-why-india-cannnot-ignore-the-crimea-crisis-in-ukraine-1416011.html

[Dakine10 5,452]

Europe should know better than to poke the bear with a stick.

Russia wants Crimea. They will take Eastern Ukraine if that falls to them. There's nothing else west of Dnieper that they want. It's all empty farmland after that. plenty of that in Russia already.

[luckytxn 2,264]

They will end up with east and south Ukraine also if Ukraine fights back.

Europe should know better than to poke the bear with a stick.

Russia wants Crimea. They will take Eastern Ukraine if that falls to them. There's nothing else west of Dnieper that they want. It's all empty farmland after that. plenty of that in Russia already.