There’s an excellent article in yesterday’s WSJ on the situation in the Crimea.
Apparently, Russia just passed a law making it easier to award Russian citizenship to people living abroad and intends to offer Russian citizenship to the recently disbanded Ukrainian riot police.
The next Ukrainian government and parliament is likely to be ultra-nationalist in a country with large numbers of ethnic Russians, especially in the eastern third of the country and the crimea. Supposedly the first thing the new parliament will do is repeal the law giving Ukrainian minorities the right to use their own language.
Historically, Ukraine falls within the Russian sphere of influence. Also, Ukraine (and much of eastern, central, and southern Europe) is entirely dependent on Russia for natural gas which is transported through pipelines across the Ukraine. Furthermore, despite being a major grain producing region, Ukraine depends on Russia for much of its food,
Also presenting the West with a major dilemma is what to do about the pending insolvency of the Ukrainin government? What happens when the government is no longer able to borrow money with which to pay pensions or the salaries of public workers? All hell is going to break loose.
