A Putrrhic Victory?

The Spectator has an interesting read by Newsweek’s former Moscow bureau chief, Owen Matthews, who tells us not to worry. In the long run, Putin's actions in Crimea will not be to Russia's advantage.

In a nutshell, Crimea is a worrisome carbuncle on Ukraine's backside. Cut it off, get your political and economic systems fixed and the Ukes will be a lot better off. And please, stop already with the mail order bride scams.

[...] Let Crimea go: it will be the making of Ukraine and the end of Vladimir Putin. Without Crimea, there will never again be a pro-Moscow government in Kiev. Ukraine will have a chance to become a governable country — a strongly pro-European one with a Russian minority of around 15 per cent. Putin will have gained Crimea but lost Ukraine for ever. And without Ukraine, as former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski famously said, ‘Russia can no longer be an empire.’

[...] Thanks to Putin’s rash decision to occupy Crimea, not just the EU but its most powerful members — notably Germany, the UK, France and Poland — realise that supporting Ukraine is no longer about handouts but principle. Countries that strive towards European values — and suffer for it — should be rewarded and protected. Angela Merkel, the European leader who knows Putin best and is usually the most conciliatory towards Russia, told the Bundestag last week that he was ‘on a different planet’. Brussels has hurried to offer an amended Association Agreement; the US has backed a generous bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

[...] What’s more, in taking Crimea Putin has made himself a hostage to Kiev. Putin’s main economic leverage is that he sits on Ukraine’s gas pipelines: but now Kiev sits on Crimea’s road, rail, water and power. And unlike the gas wars that the Kremlin launched against Ukraine in 2005 and 2009, which cut off Moscow’s European customers, a Ukrainian blockade of Crimea will hurt only Crimeans.

There's a lot more here.

No Fertilizer Exists That Will Help Barry Grow A Pair

It was already tried by giving Bary a Miracle-Gro enema.

Tit For Tat

Putin has a big set of balls when dealing with the Dancing Queen of DC.

From the UK Telegraph:

A new frontier has been laid down within Europe as Russian forces laid landmines at the top of the Crimean peninsula and fired warning shots at a European observer mission.

A convoy from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was stopped by Russian soldiers and armed militias on a main road into the Crimean peninsula.

Three bursts of automatic gunfire were fired into the air as the checkpoint commanders insisted the OSCE had no authorisation to enter the area. Witness said the shots were fired by men in balaclavas.

The Russian's Black Sea outlet to the Mediterranean can be bottled up in a heart beat - mine the Dardanelles.

The Germans did it a hundred years ago to keep the Brits out during WW I and there are much better mines now to keep the Rooskies in.  Of course the Turks may have something to say about that...