re: So Russia might have just invaded the Ukraine, kind of

quote:

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I think Russians just plain see Crimea as theirs, no matter what Ukraine's current/historic borders, or the linguistic and ethnic makeup there. They've had a presence in Crimea since the Czars and paid a heavy price in blood for that piece of real estate in WWII. It is a strategic spot for them. No surprise then that they will go to great lengths to keep control of it. Difficult to deter someone who has that kind of perspective about the place.

Kind of like how Metropolitan France used to see Algeria. Not a contiguous territory, but important to their state's identity.

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Absolutely agree 100% The real problem though is I'm afraid they also see Ukraine and Belarus as completely theirs and every other former soviet state. I mean do you know that they report on Lithuania as 'domestic news' not 'international news' and they call it the Vilnius government (city name) as though Lithuania was still theirs? There are NEW maps hanging in government buildings in Russia that label the Baltic states and color code them as a part of the Russian Federation - those countries are all in the EU and in NATO!