Whatever Russia does in the Ukraine, we know that Britain isn’t going to do much more than say ‘dear, dear’, something that was accidentally revealed when a British official was photographed bringing a document to Downing St stating as much.
We’re not going to help for a number of reasons, one of which is that Ukraine is incredibly complicated and historically and psychologically is sort of a part of Russia, or at least the eastern half is. As for the Crimea, Russia certainly has as much right to that province as the Albanians have to Kosovo.
Russia is a great power with legitimate claims to that region, and unlike Iraq, they really do have weapons of mass destruction. So pourquoi mourir pour Donetsk?
The US could possibly bluff the Russians into submission, but why would they, with such huge risks? What would it prove? The idea that allowing the Russians to hold onto the Crimea suggests some huge decline in American power is strange, considering that a quarter of a century ago the United States’ power reached as far as Bavaria, and it now surrounds Russia on almost all sides.
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