GabiMoro: Everything could have been done in a civilized way.......
Civilized way - Kosovo.
We have seen it, thanks.
You forget that current people in Kiev are result of armed captures of administrative buildings by people, which don't represent majority of Ukrainian population. They were legitimized by not letting any pro-russian candidate participate in the presidential elections and excluding 25% of population, which is 70-80% pro-russian, from voting pool.
About Crimea:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-06/one-year-later-crimeans-prefer-russia I recommend to read Bismark quotes about Russia, he really did understand us.
Do not expect that once taking advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever. Russian has always come for their money. And when they come - do not rely on an agreement signed by you, you are supposed to justify. They are not worth the paper it is written. Therefore, with the Russian is to play fair, or do not play.
- Otto von Bismarck
It was cut off at the moment of Russian weakness. Taking it back is fair. Old map of Ukrainian republic in USSR doesn't justify it.
Root of current problems lies in the fact that region-Ukraine for almost ~1000 years wasn't politically, economically and culturally meaningful. It was borderline region, divided between Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Austria-Hungary and other players. Smartest, strongest, wealthiest always leaved Ukraine heading either into Russia or West.
About USSR:
while it formally was union of republics, it was political and economical monolith. Nobody bothered with administrative borders - everything belonged to state. Borders were redrawn at will, like giving land for Republic's cake day, because nobody expected fall of USSR. This way Ukrainian Republic, which was created mainly for additional seat in UN, got its current form.
Iron curtain blocked possibility for people to migrate into West, so for last 5 generations most competent Ukrainians headed to Russia, so Kiev started to fill with west-oriented but still lacking competence people (There were Poland, Lithuania, Estonia with even better level of life).
Division of USSR was made in a hurry by 100 years old nominal administrative borders against referendum on which 80% of people voted AGAINST division. Borders weren't in any way agreed upon nor people were asked for self-determination; but they got instantly solidified by western world. Yes, against referendum. Because fuck Russia.
These borders don't match to distribution of population and economical ties. Many newly created countries got enclaves of Russian population with economical ties to other Russian regions.
In first ten years or so post-USSR area was like EU - everywhere was similar level of life, you could move freely, so people didn't bother with self-determination in newly created countries.
When alcoholic and people behind him were thrown out situation started to change, Russia started to grow in quality of life level, and many regions noticed this, to the point of "take us back".
Post-division Ukraine got biggest Russian population from all other enclaves, around 60%(in mentality, not nationality). Thing is, economical, cultural and political center for Russian population - Moscow. There are millions of Ukrainians in Russia, you don't see multimillion meetings "Putin, stop attacking my homeland". Even in post-soviet period many Ukrainians continued migration to Russia. For example, I work in Siberia. When I do search in our filial's address book for "*enko", typical ending for Ukrainian family, I see that ~15% of people have it. Me, myself, is a result of such migration.
Russians are underrepresented in Kiev. People democratically elect pro-russian president and factual Ukrainian minority, majority in capital, goes into protest mode.
Though, problem isn't in course, problem in
http://i.imgur.com/ACYWckx.png oligarchs pillage country like there is no tomorrow, no GDP per capita growth at all - growth by 20% tied to 20% population loss
http://imgur.com/2Cp19Mr My whole life ukrainians protest,
http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/9/9/7/3175799.jpg protest
http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/1/0/8/3175801.jpg protest.
http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/2/0/8/3175802.jpg protest.
http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/4/0/8/3175804.jpg protest
http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/7/0/8/3175807.jpg protest
http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/0/1/8/3175810.jpg protest
http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/3/1/8/3175813.jpg and continue to protest
http://s00.yaplakal.com/pics/pics_original/4/1/8/3175814.jpg Ukraine produced chips for Russian 5th generation jets; engines for space rockets and helicopters, gas transport system... All these plants, located in the East region, die because of puppet government, which banned export to Russia. West isn't interested in making our life better. Never was.
This "divide and conquer" politic against Russia at its finest:
"Postrevolutional democratic Georgia" tried to make ethnic cleansing of Russia-oriented region with similar infowar in press about "Russian aggression". Funny thing, but the same firm which worked with Saakashvili in Georgia now works for Kiev. Saakashvili himself works in Kiev. Yes, after getting "free from Russia", new government rewrote constitution to let foreigners take seats in government. Freedom my ass.
Then there are "democratic Lithuania", which doesn't let 15% of its population vote because they are Russians.
Thing with HUGE amounts of weapon on Ukraine - during soviet era it housed 3 armies for potential attack on Europe. Hundreds of tanks, millions tons of shells...
Ukraine is one of the world leaders in weapon export - not because they have strong weapon producing complexes (there is only one ammo plant with license for Kalashnikov ammo in Ukraine, Luhansk - under militants), they sell USSR heritage for 20 years and still have tons of equipment.
When Cuban crisis happened, US gathered UN and presented photos of soviet missiles.
So, after all these years they lost all capabilities for spying and rely on "someone posted this photo in twitter"?
Hey, this is biggest corruption scandal then - CIA takes money and doesn't work.