and continue on supporting legally elected president. I am very much concerned about Mr. Biden suggesting to his Polish counterpart today that he doesn't have to hold to treaties because "his country has 10 times military budget of the next 10 countries combined". Besides of being completely ignorant of history, where 70 years ago people who spoke in same vein ended up feeding cyanide to own children, out of fear of what will be done to them if they don't, he is also ignorant of his own country economy. Russian ruble, in terms of economic weight, is undervalued at ratio of 3:1 at this moment. And Russian military budget for year 2013 was 2x of United States of America. Your only way to equalize is to double taxes in 2014, after Mr. Obama Administration doubled those already in 2013. We are, I mean United States of America, in a deep trouble with ignorant people making fateful errors.

Hi Putin you are right about Kosovo.....it was part of Serbia right from the beginning! So was Israel from ancient history!!! Hey Palestine was old EU (Roman empire) creation and today's EU is trying to endorse it in alinement with Arabs and Iran. Worse of all you are double indirect working with EU and Iran! Hippo disband the Iran nuclear program!!!!

Anyone with minimal knowledge knows that Putin would view the loss of Crimea as strategic threat to Russia (in analogy, worse than Cuban nukes for the US) and an attempt to destablize his rule. So why Western support for Ukraine secession without even trying to get Russian cooperation? Just a few weeks ago, Obama was going down thanks to Obamacare and Lois Lerner. How convenient that now Obama's opponents are frothing at the mouth about Russian expansionism, instead of concentrating on the real issues the US face.

Dispute about legality or legitimacy of referendum is overshadowing the massacre in Kiev on 19.-21.Feb. 2014, an event which finalized the coup in Kiev, established the government which claims to be the legal one now in Ukraine. While by any account Crimea’s legal basis for holding a referendum is weak, so is also the legitimacy of present Ukrainian (Kiev) government especially if one takes seriously the claims related to Euromaidan massacre. On the bottom line the referendum does matter. As the most people in Crimea want to join Russia so this can help to find a deal between U.S., the present government and Russia. A win-win face saving solution could be that Crimea will be annexed to Russia and as compensation Ukraine will get e.g. cheaper gas deal, most oligarchs can keep their loot, the ordinary people can get at best relatively stable conditions for a while and U.S. a puppet government in Kiev. The most important outcome could be that the battle moves from verge of war to political and economic fields (P.S: More in "Crimean referendum overshadows Euromaiden Crime" - http://arirusila.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/crimean-referendum-overshadows-euromaiden-crime/ )

Would you agree to barter land for cheaper consumables?

To question "Would you agree to barter land for cheaper consumables?" my answer is yes as I try to find a face saving solution for all stakeholders. Ukraine is already in bankcrupcy, the economy in EU and Russia could be better and sanctions slow economic recovery and further development. So negotiated compromise in my view is much more better than escalation, small scale war or even frozen conflict.

'This is my last territorial demand ! ' 'Peace in our time.' Where have I heard these sentiments before?