TURMOIL IN THE UKRAINE / RUSSIA AGGRESSION

[HairOfTheDog]

An estimated 50,000 Russians participated in a "March of Peace" in Moscow today; protesting Russia's intervention in the Ukraine and Putin's "cold-war" style policies.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-moscow-p...37662.html

IMO, the best possible outcome for everyone, including Putin, tomorrow is for Crimeans to vote in favor of Option (2). That would mean Crimea would be independent again -- not governed by the Ukraine any longer, nor by Russia.

Even though Crimea's Parliament appears to have already signed on the dotted line to join Russia (whether the vote comes back in favor of Option 1 or Option 2), under the second option, Putin could wait a bit, PR the shit outta the situation using Crimea's right to democratically choose its own future as his platform, and try to bring Crimea into the Russian Federation after a cooling down period.

If the vote instead comes back in favor of becoming part of the Russian Federation under what's been presented as Putin strong-arming the region and its people, I'm afraid it's gonna get real crazy real fast and have western leaders and NATO allies in Eastern Europe scrambling for what to do next. This potential annexation has proceeded at such rapid speed.

Really hoping this can all be handled without military action.