By Robert van Voren
So it seems the next steps are becoming clearer. Yanukovych, propped up health-wise by his mentor Putin, will gloriously return to Eastern Ukraine with well-armed and – of course – unmarked “self-defence forces”, set up his own government in “liberated territories” and claim to be the sole legal representative of the Ukrainian people. Putin, totally surprised by this extraordinary move, will feel compelled to respond to the heartfelt cry for assistance from Russian brethren and fulfil his obligations according to international law. As Yanukovych is according to Russia still the only legitimate President of Ukraine Russia sees no alternative than to recognise his government and there you are – another rogue state on the border of Russia. And with a little bit of luck the “self-defence forces” (unmarked, of course) will manage to occupy the whole east and south of the country and link Russia with its other rogue state, Transdniestria.
My worry is what Kyiv will do. It seems to have sunk into apathy and lack of ability to take any concrete steps. If you see how Ukrainian troops were “pulled back” from Crimea, in total disarray and without even receiving proper orders from Kyiv, my fear is Yanukovich will indeed be successful.
For Russia is is the next step towards isolation, patriotic ecstasy and neo-fascism. It is also one step closer to its demise, but why do so many people have to suffer before it reaches that stage?!
Source: FB
Euromaidan PR 
Reblogged this on Voices of Ukraine.
Thank you Robert van Voren for your brief but apt insights into the immediate state of affairs both in the Crimea and in the Ukraine! Your sketch or caricature of Putin tying up the ‘bride of Crimea’, as a captive wedding gift speaks at least a 1000 words of the low-moral character of this Billionaire Oligarch, Vladimir Putin. I noticed in other blogged messages about Putin that he is called “Putler” as if to suggest that he is another Hitler, and perhaps he fancies himself to be one. But the painful reality is that Putin is less like Adolf Putler and more like Josef Putlin. He lacks the charm and charisma that Hitler had when he wooed Austria like a bride so well, that Austria threw her arms around him and strewed his path with flowers, praising Hitler and thanking him for accepting Austria into the ‘Greater Germany’ of 1938. When the world left the Olympic Games in 1936 they were so impressed with Germany that many peoples openly praised Hitler as the Greatest Statesman of the 20th Century! But this crack-pot Putin cannot come close to Hitler’s slick propaganda machine. One has only to watch “Triumph of the Will” to realize that Hitler knew how to maintain an attractive polished image that fooled a lot of the world (including Stalin himself at first) until it became painfully clear what he was up to. Putin, on the other hand, though probably as evil as Hitler (but certainly not as sinister as Stalin) fits somewhere in between these two mega-maniac monsters. I personally think that it would take two Hitlers to make up for the evil of one Josef Stalin but then that is because I am aware of his Holodomor (artificial famine) in 1934 to the Ukrainian people (killing an estimated 12 million Ukrainians!). Is this action something Putin would like to continue? That is, Does Putin imagine himself to be another Stalin–one who could take over a Ukrainian state–such as The Crimea–and convert it into a Russian one?! That’s what Stalin attempted to do: to replace Ukraine (through starvation) with Russian citizens and so remove the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian peoples and make room for his Russian immigrants. Now it appears that Putin wishes to do the same with The Ukrainian Crimea as well with the rest of Ukraine, as his soon-to-be-evident invasion will attempt to demonstrate, no doubt. But in these sly and sinister maneuvers, Putin will find himself out-foxed. For what Putin is doing is not hidden in a corner. All the world (thanks to instant video messaging on digital cameras and cell phones) can clearly see what Putin is up to as it happens! The Crimea has become Ukraine’s goldfish bowl: All the world is watching Putin’s ‘little green men” (who are not mysterious unidentified creatures from Mars, but Putin’s idea of a sick joke, a joke that like the humor of an abusive spouse–does not make anyone feel like laughing but makes you wonder whether this mad man is ‘from another world’?!). So, Putin is no longer “Mr. Nice Guy”, an amiable actor mixing with other notable actors as he sings: “On Blueberry Hill” in English (as he did a few years ago in the Winter Palace)! He has taken off his mask and revealed his true RED colors: the colors not of a glorious proud Russia, but the RED colors of blood, and betrayal, and deception. Putin no longer knows how to love, how to be nice, how to be a good guy. He cannot kiss a young woman’s hand and make her swoon (the way Hitler could) but more akin to Stalin, he enjoys to torture and to taunt those weaker than him, those under his command, those under his control, those in his so-called ‘Autonomous’ Russian Federation. But do not be fooled: anyone who is now under Putin’s spell or who will submit to his rule will shortly discover that they are rather like the bride in this cartoon–totally helpless to do otherwise, just as the captives in Crimea now have learned: that anyone who complains after Victory Day (9th May 2014) will be imprisoned by Putin! Welcome to Putin’s Prison: much like Russian-Tainted (RT) news–it is an ‘alternative’ view to FREE speech, TRUTH and FREEDOM in the ‘true’ and new ‘Russian’ sense of the word!