Crimea has voted to return to Russia. Ukraine as it was is no longer. Get used to it.
And if you think this is blameworthy, dont't blame Russia; blame those neo-turkeys in Washington D.C. They got greedy, rolled the dice and crapped out.
Exon has a deal going with Rosneft in the Russian Arctic. If they play their cards right and tender well, it may soon have another deal going with Skifska in the Black Sea.
What's your problem?

Surprise, surprise, Crimea has oil and gas reserves!
And Mr Putin wants them?
Perhaps if the Ukraine had been allowed to develop these resources, they could have finally and fully escaped the Russian yoke?
Could this be history repeating itself, with a power hungry megalomaniac, with a very large capable nuclear powered army at his beck and call, re-righting historical wrongs?
Yeah right!
And assuring the world, he has no ambitions for further expansions!
Yeah right!
I mean, a gentle and kind Putin has improved the freedoms and inherent rights of all the Russian Peoples, since he changed the constitution, to allow himself, to take on the power of a virtual Czar!
Yeah right!
People are now completely free to speak their minds, and even critique him, with complete impunity!
Yeah right!
One notes, he gave his assurance from the Czarist Palace to a completely hoodwinked admiring crowd!
And doesn't that have a very familiar historical ring?
Where ethnic minorities and HOMOSEXUALS, became the most popular scapegoats, and cover for the worst excesses of a virtual gang of power hungry, extremely intolerant, mass murdering criminals?
Sieg hiel!
Today Crimea, tomorrow the world, just a little piece at a time?
Well, China seems to have been getting away with just that, for decades?
Even as a world promised endless, but not forthcoming reprisals, or simply turned their collective cowardly backs? Jawol?
Rhrosty.

First the Ukraine, then the Baltic States?

Then all of the previous Soviet Republics one by
one that the regime occupied for decades and still
sees as their own.

The West will
again turn a blind eye and give tacit permission
for the Soviet Regime to continue to expand its
draconian system.

Poor Ukraine. Nobody believed the artificial Ukrainian
Famine of 1932-33, nobody believed the wholesale
destruction of the Russian peasantry, and later of the
peasantry and intelligensia in the occupied territories as well.
The world is currently buying what Mr Putin and the
Kremlin is selling and the same shroud of silence from
the West that existed in the past will again fall and
suppression (and murder) will again be raised to a science.

We're really big on freedom in the West - as long as
it doesn't affect our own.

What's wrong with this article is that Russia has heaps of oil and gas already - increasingly in the warming Arctic.

Crimea will be a net money loser for Russia but Crimea's strategic value (Russia's only ice-free naval base) is great and the reason Russia took it over.

Think Julia Bishop needs to watch her mouth in the media...and be clear she's talking on he behalf and not as foreign minister for all us Australians...when imposing sanctions against Russia and critiquing Crimean Referundum...
We are physically in Asian sphere of influence...if you holding onto our European roots then this is a good time to move back to Europe...otherwise start thinking Asian and behave Asian...
We are at the time of diminishing European power and influence and rise of Asian...times come to choose our loyalties...Russia is more Asian than European...
So Julia don't doom our children's future by acting like Australia is an European interest satellite in Asian region...and be true to your loyalties always...decide, are you European in Asia or euroasian in Asia?...
sam

Dear Sam,

We have values and principles that are central to
our country remaining a stable, prosperous and
peaceful community. They provide the common
reference points for our free and democratic society.

While shared to some extent by all liberal democracies
these values and principles have been adapted to our
country's unique setting, moulded and modernised through
waves of settlement by people from all over the world.

These values and principles reflect strong influences on
this country's history and culture. These include
Judeo-Christian ethics, a British political heritage and
the spirit of European enlightenment. Distinct Irish and
non-conformist attitudes and sentiments have also
been important.

Of course the values and principles that we in this
country share should not be seen as a quest for conformity
or a common set of beliefs.

On the contrary, respect for the free-thinking individual
and the right to be different are the foundations of this
country's democracy.

You should therefore understand that what you're suggesting
is not really going to work. You don't seem to understand
that this country's core values have helped to create
a society that is stable yet dynamic cohesive yet
diverse. These values define and symbolise why so many
people want to become Australians.