As reported in the Financial Times:
“Russian President Vladimir Putin completed on Tuesday the first annexation of another European country’s territory since the second world war by absorbing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula into the Russian Federation with the stroke of a pen.”
“Russia’s stock market continued to rebound, however, after Mr Putin said he saw ‘no need’ to split Ukraine. Moscow’s Micex index closed up 4.1 per cent.
Control of the Crimea was always Russian for the taking, should that be Russia’s sole goal; and that could have been achieved through negotiations. The Crimea already enjoyed special status as a part of Ukraine.
So the real concern was whether Putin was testing to see just how much of the industrialized Eastern Ukraine Russia could annex before the the consequences became too great. From what Putin said, apparently a deal has been struck that protects Eastern Ukraine, at least for the moment.
The West likely will decry what has taken place but do little about it and the matter will be forgotten in a couple of years. That’s the best of the possibilities.
Hopefully annexation of Crimea is the last and not the first Russian step. But we fear otherwise.
