I've got my eye on the media. I've been lurking around the Washington Post and looking at the comments on the subject of the Ukraine, which is about as flame-war worthy an item as we will get. I was reading some of the comments about the possibility of this being about NATO and Putin not wanting this, and I came up with the following from an old intelligence analyst: Bobcat4424 3:13 PM EST It is extremely important to Putin that he secure a land bridge along the Sea of Azov top the Crimea. This is why Russian troops are massing to attack Mariupol. Apparently Putin believes that if he can throw around 15,000 fresh Russian troops into the battle at Mariupol, then there will be nothing to prevent his land bridge to the Ukraine. Without the land bridge, the Crimea is dependent on the Ukraine for water, electricity, natural gas, etc and the only connection with Russia is via a creaky Stalin-era ferry service. Once the land bridge to the Crimea is achieved, Putin will turn his attention to Latvia and Estonia. Will Belarus already safely in his orbit and Romania on the brink, the two most hated Baltic States would be next. Then Lithuania and Poland would also be involved in "frozen wars. Personally as an old intelligence analyst, my belief is that Putin does not really want to take this territory. With the Russian economy in tatters and the infrastructure in serious decline, rebuilding these countries, even to a primitive Russian level would be more than he could handle. But if he can surround Russia with a series of "frozen conflicts" with ever-changing battle lines and truces and ceasefires, he will effectively prevent a large swath of Europe from joining the EU or NATO. The flaws in Putin's thinking are: 1) The Russian economy is in ruins and will remain so for at least 10-15 years. This is a long time for a lot of people to suffer. The siloviki have already lost some 35%-50% of their wealth. Putin must have their support to continue. 2) If Russia attacks Latvia or Estonia, even using Belarus as a proxy, it will be an existential threat to NATO. NATO will have to choose between defending these two countries or disbanding. 3) Already Europe and Canada and the US are setting up treaties to build natural gas liquifaction facilities, ships and storage facilities to supply Europe with natural gas. This one was quite partisan: freddie11 2:59 PM EST The Ukrainian crisis: Who initiated the coup that overthrew a democratically elected government? drum roll please... the U.S.A. as admitted by Mr. Obama. Who installed one of their own to be the Ukrainian Finance Minister? Give up?The U.S.A., Natalie Jaresko formally Section chief at the US embassy to Ukraine and owner of an investment fund(Western NIS Enterprise Fund), which distributed US taxpayer money provided thorough the US Agency for International Development (USAID/C.I.A.). Also CEO of Horizon Capital which pocketed $1,037,603 in 2011 and $1,023,689 in 2012 for distributing funds in Ukraine. Who installed one of their own to run Ukraine’s largest private gas company, Burisma Holdings? Ding Ding Ding, you guessed it, The U.S.A. Hunter Biden. The vice president's son who has no experience in the field yet.... So as you see, Putin must be the bad guy..... Very wry sarcasm. And it got this reply: MeriJ 3:07 PM EST [Edited] >Who initiated the coup that overthrew a democratically elected government? drum roll please... the U.S.A. as admitted by Mr. Obama. You would be more effective if you didn't repeat the more obvious lies tossed out by your people. They focus on quantity without regard for quality, but you should know better. Yes, I know exactly which comments by Obama you are referring to. And I know how RT has attempted to twist them to imply what you just stated. Utter horsesheet. And then this reply: Kevin Ran 3:13 PM EST hmmmm who initiated the pro-russian government of ukraine that represented russia's interests and put ukraines interests in the back drumm roll please.... Russia who is supporting the seperatists to recieve tanks guns and artillar? Give up? Russia unless obcourse you believe that ukraine would be suppliying the seperatists or infact all that equipment just fell from the sky. Who tried destroying the ukrainain language by replacing most of ukraines tv media with russian language media Viktor Yanukovych putins puppet. So ukraine seeing their language was being threatened what did they do just as any other country including russia would do they tried implementing pro ukraine culture and language laws the fact that they made russian language illegal is irrelavant its none of russia's business what ukraine does with it's laws if your russian and you want to speak ukrainain than guess what ukraine will deport you back to russia but if your ukrainain and you still want to speak russian than guess what it does not matter if your a russian speaker your not russian your ukrainain and its none of russia's business what policies are implemented on people who have no effiliation with russia aka none russian citizens. And so russia decides to arm and cause resistance through propaganda (same tactics as the nazi's) in east ukraine in order to subdue and suppress ukraine language and culture so ukraine must be the true nazi's not the pro russians.... Emotions are really running very high here.