NEWSWATCH: “Russia’s Vladimir Putin may believe time is ripe for another invasion. The Crimea crisis has come from nowhere but the Russian president has form for military adventures in Olympic years, says Luke Harding” – The Guardian (UK)

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

The situation in Crimea looks ominous. Russia’s FSB … said … it … foiled a series of attacks by armed Ukrainians on the peninsula. … Putin accused Kiev[] … of choosing terror over peace. Meanwhile, largely unnoticed by the outside world, Russia has been stealthily shipping military vehicles to Crimea, which Putin annexed … 2014. … two years after Putin sent ‘little green men’ – actually undercover Russian special forces soldiers – to overrun Crimea, another military offensive seems distinctly possible. Crimea’s ‘parliament’ said Ukraine had already launched an undeclared war. Ukraine says the supposed plot is FSB fiction.

The new Crimea crisis has come from nowhere. Over in the east there have been daily clashes between pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian government forces in Donestk and Luhansk, with a spike in recent weeks. * * * At this point there seem to be three possible scenarios. One is that Putin will try to leverage this latest crisis to persuade EU countries to drop … sanctions …. Another is that he is preparing a limited military incursion, possibly to set up a security corridor, which doubtless would include the electricity station in … Kherson. A third is that he is planning something bigger. …

Click here for The Guardian (UK): “Vladimir Putin may believe time is ripe for another invasion. The Crimea crisis has come from nowhere but the Russian president has form for military adventures in Olympic years, says Luke Harding”

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