Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSquealer
You're a dreamer. Russia will be just fine and so will Putin. He got what he wants and in a couple years Obama will be gone as will any European leaders and a new Russian president will be in power and the whole world will want to join hands, forgive and start over in the interest of peace and love and happiness and Russia will still own Crimea.
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I think everyone is overstating how much of an awesome get Crimea is for Russia. It's a strategic location (that they already had a multi-decade lease on militarily) that's a total economic backwater and was completely dependent on mainland Ukraine for all the basic necessities of power, water, etc. It's extremely corrupt. There is no land connection to Russia and any bridge across the strait is years and billions of $$$ away. It will be a negative drag on their economy in the best case scenario, and let's not get carried away with portraying Russia's economy as rock-solid, because it's not whatsoever.
There is also a potentially radicalized population of Muslims there in the Crimean Tatars that want no part of annexation, especially after they've only recently returned to the region after being deported in the 1940s (half of those deported died with a few years).
There's a lot of nationalist pride going on in Russia right now that Putin is tapping into, but these things go in waves - people are fickle. As I keep saying, let's give this 2-5 years before it's claimed a victory.
Also, am I one of the only people who doesn't see East vs West as this zero-sum game? Lotta blind animosity being thrown around.