Hi Hasbeen,

Not being a Crimean Tartar, I wouldn't know what that felt like. But what's the bet that things like that will start happening in the next week ?

What Putin needs is an Incident, something outrageous, which will give him an excuse to invade all of Ukraine. Perhaps his agents will put on Ukrainian uniforms and blow up a pre-school, or hospital, something like that, and perhaps in Odessa. Because he won't stop at the Crimea. Like every imperialist, he will want every bit of the Old Empire back again, right up to the borders of Hungary and the Czech Republic, and including all the Baltic states. Maybe Poland as well.

The problem with running a Mafia state is that you can't pull back - once you've waved your fist, you have to use it, or you're finished, rubbed out in your turn, to be replaced by the next capo. It's the same with patron-client state-control systems everywhere. Look at Mugabe - he dare not retire, the only way is to die in office, one way or the other.

So I hope that, yes, the Ukrainian government cancels all dual-citizenship and invites all Ukrainians who wish to vote in a Referendum, to re-register as single-citizenship Ukrainians: those who want to remain as Russians in the Crimea and Donetsk &c. would thereby be barred from voting in any referendum held on legally-Ukrainian territory, which the Crimea still is, because they would not be Ukrainians.

And when Mother Russia holds a Federation-wide referendum on the same issue, those Russians now in eastern Ukraine can vote in that one. Alongside the Bashkars, Volga Germans, Chechens, Yakuts, Kazakhs, Bulgars, and the multitude of other groups within the tight embrace of Russia.

What's sauce for the goose, ......

Joe

General Martin Dempsey has said that the present Ukrainian Govt is illegal and everyone needs to take a deep breathe to stop this situation from escalating.

>>By any reading, he is now doing exactly that in Ukraine, and almost as logical as France invading Canada, to protect the interests of Quebec's french speaking Canadians?<<

France does not have in Quebec a military wharf, a strategically important and only warm water base for France’s naval fleet (like Sevastopol is for Russia).

So now they're disappearing people ? Throwing people off rooves, firing over crowds, disqualifying citizens from voting - these weren't enough ?

Chapter 1 in a very horrible saga, aided by useful idiots even In Australia.

Joe

I think I got it wrong, suggesting that Putin needs an 'Incident' to invade Ukraine.

No, I don't think he will need one, he will invade all of Ukraine, in a week or two, and push right through to Moldova. No excuses, no reasons, no 'Incidents'. It's his, and his useful idiots will sing his praises.

Then he will engineer trouble in the Baltic states, get his agents and thugs to occupy key buildings in border towns, hold another 'referendum' and incorporate those regions into the old Tsarist empire as well.

Then Poland.

Imperialists don't stop, it's a bit like riding the tiger. Surely we've learnt that horrible lesson from the First World War ? But even the British acknowledged the 'winds of change', and the French too. Eventually even the Portuguese.

Imagine that: that Portuguese ex-fascists were more 'progressive' than so many of Putin's useful idiots.

Jo

Joe, I've made a copy of your latest comment to check your predictions against the reality of the next few weeks. I note you are careful not to provide a timetable. Was that an oversight or based on a wish we will have forgotten your predictions with the passage of a little time?

Another question: do you apply the same analysis to the thrashings of that failed empire known as the USA. Check out William Blum's books for a catalogue of American invasions, support for coups, undermining democratically elected governments etc. It is quite an impressive list, even when you restrict it to post 1945.

The apex of hypocrisy in this context was Kerry's widely reported comment that nations don't behave this way in the 21st century. Funny were it not so disastrous for those nations on the receiving end of American displeasure.