While Putin appears to have gotten away with invading and taking The Crimea from Ukraine but taking Donetsk and Luhansk will mean more because The United Nations, The United States, Western Europe and NATO will be forced into the bitter conflict against Russia and possibly China who is stupidly working behind the scenes to help Putin ruin Russia. Shame on Putin. Shame on China.

We would like nothing better than reporting Putin has come to his senses and has decided to avoid provoking Ukraine and the West into a major conflict which Putin cannot win, even if he is aligned with China because China has problems of it’s own facing America. Putin would be well advised to make peace with Ukraine and to use it to springboard the sale of much more energy to Western Europe. Putin could use the energy revenue to jump start the Russian people into a better future instead of the misery and privation into which he is currently galloping to his and the Russian people’s detriment. Stupid man. Biden just sent 50 advanced fighter aircraft to Poland. More will follow as America helps arm the Baltics, Poland and other nations against Russia. This doesn’t have to be but it’s just about certain that a new hot war is shaping up. If that happens, America will do splendidly producing military hardware and selling it to European nations against Russia and China. America will become even richer and more prosperous and Russia and China will become less prosperous if Putin moves against Ukraine.

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In February and March 2014, Russia stupidly and against moral law invaded and subsequently  illegally annexed  the  Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

On 22–23 February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security service chiefs to discuss the extrication of the deposed Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych. At the end of the meeting, Putin remarked that “we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia”. He was wrong to say that. Crimea does not belong to Russia.

On 23 February, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. On 27 February, masked Russian troops without insignia took over the Supreme Council (parliament) of Crimea and captured strategic sites across Crimea, which led to the illegal installation of the pro-Russian Sergey Aksyonov government in Crimea, the conducting of the Crimean status referendum and the declaration of Crimea’s independence on 16 March 2014. Russia formally incorporated Crimea as two Russian federal subjects—the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol on 18 March 2014. Following the annexation, Russia escalated military presence on the peninsula and leveraged nuclear threats to solidify the new status quo on the ground. All that was against International law.

Ukraine and many other countries condemned the annexation and consider it to be a violation of international law and Russian-signed agreements safeguarding the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including: the 1991 Belavezha Accords that established the Commonwealth of Independent States, the 1975 Helsinki Accords, the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances and the 1997 Treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. It led to the other members of the then G8 suspending Russia from the group then introducing a first round of sanctions against the country. The United Nations General Assembly also rejected the referendum and annexation, adopting a resolution affirming the “territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders”. The UN resolution also “underscores that the referendum having no validity cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of [Crimea]” and called upon all states and international organizations not to recognize or to imply the recognition of Russia’s annexation. In 2016, the UN General Assembly reaffirmed non-recognition of the annexation and condemned “the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine—the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol”.

Deputy US national security advisor for international economics Daleep Singh warned the consequences of invading its ex-Soviet neighbor would spell “strategic defeat for Russia, pure and simple.”

The Russian government opposes the “annexation” label, with Putin wrongly defending the referendum as complying with the principle of self-determination of peoples. Putin has lost his mind. He needs to leave the Crimea and return Crimea to Ukraine.

Singh warned Putin that: “It will become isolated from global financial markets and be deprived of the most sophisticated technological inputs.”

He predicted “intense capital outflows, mounting pressure on its currency, surging inflation, higher borrowing costs, economic contraction, and the erosion of its productive capacity.”

Singh said the Western “financial sanctions and export controls are embedded in a broader strategy that would undercut Putin’s aspirations to project power and exert influence on the world stage.”

“Russia would become more dependent on countries that cannot compensate for its losses,” Singh warned — saying “China could not be a substitute for all the West provides.”

Meanwhile, he said, “the West and international community would emerge more united and determined to defend shared values and core principles than at any point in the post-Cold War era.”

Singh further told reporters the United States is “ready” for fallout if Russia decides to “weaponize” its massive energy reserves in response to Western sanctions.

“If Russia decides to weaponize its energy supply, we’re ready,” he said.

“We’ve been taking steps… to coordinate with major energy consumers, major energy producers to ensure that we have steady energy supplies and… stable energy markets,” he said.

Speaking earlier at the White House podium, Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security advisor for cyber threats, accused Russia of mounting the latest wave of cyberattacks in Ukraine, including against banks.

“We believe the Russian government is responsible for widespread cyberattacks on Ukrainian banks this week,” Neuberger told reporters.

She added that the speed of the US decision to go public with the attribution to Russia was “very unusual,” but reflected the urgency.

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