Ukraine Crisis

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Crimea is apparently going to hold some sort of referendum on its status at the same time as the May elections.  The question is reported as "Does the Autonomous Republic of Crimea possess governmental independence or continue to be part of Ukraine on the basis of treaties and agreements – Yes or No?"

That's a really confusing way of wording that question.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I understood the question perfectly well. It's the "Yes or No" that is confusing.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It's times like this we need John McCain in the White House, without Palin as VP of course.

You want WWIII?

If you don't want WWIII, what do you imagin McCain would actually do?

Putin and the Russians would take McCain more seriously than they ever would Obama.

McCain would take a much firmer stance and wouldn't let the Russian dictator push him around.

But what, specifically, do you think McCain would be able to do?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I think it's time for President Obama to ask for a Declaration of War against Russia

It's not.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

If Ukraine proper were to be split in two, what city is most likely to become capital of the eastern part?

If that happens, Moscow.

Within the terms of the question, Donetsk seems likelier than any other options.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

If Ukraine proper were to be split in two, what city is most likely to become capital of the eastern part?

If that happens, Moscow.

Within the terms of the question, Donetsk seems likelier than any other options.

Of the eastern cities, Kharkiv is, unquestionably, the most important. In fact, it was briefly the capital of Soviet Ukraine at one point.

I didn't know that. Interesting.

I'm not sure why I assumed Donetsk would be more important; possibly because it's got a lot of exposure lately in the sources that I've been reading.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Isn't there also going to be a World Cup in one of the Gulf emirates some time soon? If so, is that really any better?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Well crap.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Crimea_and_Sevastopol#Stances

I guess fighting a 13 year long war doesn't stop a country from being a pawn of Putin.

are cuban-russian relations not good these days?

Cuba voted against the UN resolution supporting Ukraine's position but for whatever reason didn't officially recognize the accession of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Federation. The same is true of, for example, Bolivia and Zimbabwe, so I'm not sure that reflects anything about Cuban-Russian relations specifically. What it does indicate I can't tell.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Donetsk and Luhansk have merged to form the new country of "New Russia"... which probably is an epic fail of a country considering its generic name.

Novorossiya is the term that the Russian Empire used for the regions that it conquered in what is now eastern and southern Ukraine in the eighteenth century, so the name's not new.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It also shows what a pointless joke the UN has become.

Please stop talking and come back when you figure out what the United Nations actually does.

In my lifetime, the only thing I have seen the UN "do" is make itself a forum for third world crackpots and tyrants to blame the west for their problems.

Here, I'll help you out. Have you noticed that smallpox isn't a thing anymore? Who do you think is responsible for that?

Seriously?  Not the UN.

Who, then?

Edward Jenner...

That's not technically wrong but it completely misses the point. It's like saying because you oppose Polish nationalism that Bartolomeo Cristofori can be credited with Chopin's Scherzo No. 2.