A little background from the week. Russian President Vladimir Putin provided safety to now ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The Ukrainian government came together with broadly pro-European sentiment -- and with few, if any, representatives of other viewpoints. The West welcomed the developments and prepared to send an IMF mission, which would lift the immediate economic challenge. And then, predictably ... the Russians changed the conversation.
Here's some further background....
The U.S. and Europe supported the Ukrainian opposition as soon as Yanukovych fled the country. That also effectively breached the accord that had been signed by the European foreign ministers, the opposition and Yanukovych (a Russian special envoy attended but did not add his name). The immediate American perspective was to take the changed developments on the ground as a win. But a "win" was never on offer in Ukraine, where Russian interests are dramatically, even exponentially, greater than those of the Americans or Europeans. For its part, the new Ukrainian government lost no time in antagonizing the Russians -- dissolving the Ukrainian special forces, declaring the former president a criminal, and removing Russian as a second official language. The immediate Russian response was military exercises and steps to keep Crimea. Putin kept mum on any details.
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