Russia, the Crimea and the Ukraine (II)

Strange. Earlier today, I was watching parts of that press conference with Vladimir Putin, and he looked as if he had suffered a disappointment. Yes, his troops have taken possession of the Crimea. Not a single person has been wounded or killed - thus far - although some hot heads did discharge their weapons outside an airforce base earlier today. The hot heads being some Russian soldiers who were confronted by a column of 300 Ukrainean soldiers marching towards them - unarmed. By not offering any resistance to this profound provocation, being the invasion of what was their territory since 1954, has most likely taken the sting out of the situation. The Ukraineans knew they could never stand up to the might of the Russian armed forces. So they offered no resistance. And that deprived Putin of the pretext he wanted for launching an all-out assault. We ain't there yet. But suddenly, the sun seems to be reappearing behind the clouds over the Ukraine. Keep your heads cool there. Oh, Yanukovich, you ask? He has been ruled out by Putin.