Crimean situation review: Putin’s provocations did not work so far

UKRAINE - In Brief 28 Feb 2014 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

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Moscow is trying to launch Abkhazian scenario for Ukraine. After victory of Maidan it is critical for Vladimir Putin to take some revenge on Ukraine. Annexation of Crimea looks like his choice for revenge. Disposition in Crimea is very good for this plan: Russian-speaking population, Russian military bases, people at Crimea is irritated and scared with Maidan victory. But there is one problem – there should be hard evidence that pro-Maidan extremists are threatening Crimea to start ‘protecting Russian population from nationalist bandits’. All the events of recent days with military men walking armed at the cities of the peninsular and even taking under control airports and state buildings have the only goal – provoke ultra-nationalists and new authorities for aggression. Behavior of Russian military men is extremely defiant. They leave their bases when they want, bring more forces from Russia to their bases, block Ukrainian border ships, and take under control anything they want to capture. Still all the steps so far look more like expressly teasing steps rather than real military actions. All this makes us think that Russian army is trying to create an excuse to start real fight. At the same time Ukrainian authorities are behaving extremely cautiously. All ultra-nationalist forces have been warned from intervening into the Crimean situation. Oleg Tyahnybok, leader of ultranationalist party Svoboda, addressed southeast claiming that there will be no pressure on Russian-speaking people. Still, Russian TV channels (the most popular at Crimea) keep generating hysterical moods about nationalist bandits thriving to capture Crimea and dreaming to make Crimeans speaking Ukrai...