Would have thought Iraq, with its high ranking supreme leader was more of a sovereign state in the "truest" sense than most / all democracies?

Nice to see Cameron using the same yard stick, threatening sanctions, in Israel [urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26555893[/url even though Israel is continuing to invade and build on Palestinian land...

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The Western powers are on a sticky wicket here, Putin is has been careful to keep his intentions focused on the parts of Ukraine that are to all intents and purposes Russian already. The Russian Federation is just the current incarnation of the Russian Empire, which for a chunk of the 20th century went under the name of 'Soviet Union', in the context of the tumultuous history of the Russian Empire spats like Crimea rejoining Russia is not something the West should be trying to get involved in. It won't do any good, nobody seriously believes that the majority in the Russian parts of Ukraine actually want to stay in Ukraine, the Western powers are just miffed that it's not being done within the West's preferred liberal democratic political framework, but then none of what is going on in Ukraine really conforms to Western liberal democracy. If it wasn't so geopolitically close to Western Europe, and if Russia wasn't so resurgent they would turn a blind eye anyway. If it was China doing this they wouldn't bat an eye, in fact China has annexed non-Chinese territory and the West hasn't got too huffy puffy about it, so Russia annexing what are effectively already bits of Russia should not be escalated out of hand.

You're offspring is misguided about what a sovereign state is. Democracy or dictatorship is not really the issue either. What matters is power.

The people of the Crimea want to be in Russia, for me that is democracy in action. The Government should work for the people not the other way around. The people have spoken and they have what they want.
Similar to The Falklands and Gibraltar they want to stay British, so be it.

I agree totally, Russia are well within their rights to do what they have done as we did with the Falklands.

However, will Latvia be next?

Nevermind, the terrorists in the Gaza strip tossed a few rockets into Israel last week to make up for it.

Slight difference is that Russia have invaded Ukranian land - Argentina invaded British land, we went and got them back.

What Russia should have done is requested negotiation with Ukraine, stating their belief that the people of Crimea wanted to become Russian - Of course, politics always gets in the way and things aren't that simple.

It cannot just be about power, otherwise it would be perfectly acceptable for those nations with power, for instance the USA and Russia, to invade and conquer their weaker neighbours as and when they feel like it. This would render the entire Westphalian system redundant.

National sovereignty refers to the right of nations to exercise the principle of self-determination in dealing with internal matters. A nation is not an abstract principle, it is a body of people with common blood, history, culture of language living in a particular geographical territory. National self-determination can therefore only exist when power lies in the hands of the people, not in the hands of one man.

It can't be that simple surely??..... What if in 10 or 20 year's time Bradford's population becomes overwhelmingly swayed towards people of Pakistani origin - If those people decided they felt more Pakistani than British and felt their own ideals were not that of Britain's, could those people apply for Pakistan to 'claim' Bradford?

I forgot the part in which we used to be the Asian Union not too long ago

To paraphrase Putin today, the West's idea of international "law" is just the law of the powerful.

You seem confused. You rightly say a nation is a body of people but then imply the people living within the borders of the Ukraine of last week are one nation. The whole point is a part of them (the majority in Crimea) are of the Russian nation and want to be part of Russia geographically. Russia in turn wants them.

If Obama was asked by a journalist to choose between a pro-US dictatorship and an anti-US democracy, he'd answer by sending the journo to Guantanamo Bay.

Argument doesn't really work. Bradford has never been part of Pakistan, and Pakistan has never made any claim on Bradford being part of Pakistan. Also, the people of Bradford with Pakistani origin are migrants or the descendents of migrants, they left one territory for another a long way away. Crimea on the other hand was part of the Russian Empire from 18th century and then it's successor the Soviet Empire in the 20th century, it was only ceded to Ukraine within the context of Ukraine also being part of that Soviet Empire. So it's existence outside of effective Russian control is a relevatively short post-Soviet experience.

I'd guess the majority of those in Crimea, who consider themselves Russian, were actually born in the Ukraine - It doesn't matter how recently Russia gave Crimea to the Ukranians, you can't just march back in on the whim of the people, without at least trying to negotiate with the people who legally 'own' the land.

The scary thing is, if Russia are allowed to get away with this method of land grabbing, then I fear this won't be the last such incident in Eastern Europe.

I'm all for the will of the people, but things have to be done properly (negotiation, proper legal referendum, etc).... A rush job referendum, loaded towards those who have called that vote, isn't really how you should be doing things.

Putin should have just stated that his secret service, (SVR) had informed him of the possibility the Ukranians had WMD pointed at the Kremlin.

Another leaked tape not being reported by any Western Media. Of course I don't speak Ukrainian so can't verify what she actually says but if the subtitles are anything to go by Tymoshenko is another nasty piece of work the Western powers love to support. rt.com/news/tymoshenko-calls-destroy-russia-917/

Another leaked tape not being reported by any Western Media. Of course I don't speak Ukrainian so can't verify what she actually says but if the subtitles are anything to go by Tymoshenko is another nasty piece of work the Western powers love to support. rt.com/news/tymoshenko-calls-destroy-russia-917/

There's a Mitchell and Webb sketch [Are we the baddies? that has me thinking sometimes, we hear all the stuff in the media and wonder if we are given a balanced viewpoint and just because Putin DOES have SOME vile policies, is he wrong on this one?

It doesn't really matter if Putin is "right" or "wrong", he has very carefully calculated what he can and can't do and the answer was he can annex Crimea with little or no meaningful repercussions. I expect he is weighing in the balance whether the probably slightly greater problems of annexing Ukraine itself are worth the candle.

ATEOTD unless you are prepared to go to war with Russia (or whoever it may be) then diplomacy is never going to prevent such action. And while some level of sanctions may cause Putin real issues, he knows full well that the chance of military conflict with the west is nil. The USA will pick on isolated basket cases like Iraq, and the UK will happily hang on to its coat-tails, but there isn't a cat in hell's chance of Putin's bluff being called, and ultimately all we rely on is his good will not to do such takeovers. Nobody was or is ever gonna prevent them.

Seems like the Western puppets who have hijacked the government in Ukraine have decided to start executing their useful far right idiots. No sympathy for the Nazi thug who died but just shows how ruthless the bankster backed Kiev Mafia really are . . . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df-P5eXnp3k#t=37 Also has anybody seen the austerity measures they have to impose to get an IMF loan? Drastic cuts in energy subsidies, an end to state subsidies towards any businesses making them noncompetitive against Western competition, a 50% cut in pension payments and an indefinite freeze on public sector work pay. Should all go down well to the average Ukrainian!

Seems like the Western puppets who have hijacked the government in Ukraine have decided to start executing their useful far right idiots. No sympathy for the Nazi thug who died but just shows how ruthless the bankster backed Kiev Mafia really are . . . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df-P5eXnp3k#t=37 Also has anybody seen the austerity measures they have to impose to get an IMF loan? Drastic cuts in energy subsidies, an end to state subsidies towards any businesses making them noncompetitive against Western competition, a 50% cut in pension payments and an indefinite freeze on public sector work pay. Should all go down well to the average Ukrainian!

I think this sums up things reasonably well: www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... Putin.html

I think this sums up things reasonably well: www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... Putin.html

As an aside...Peter Hitchens, what a humourless turd he is.

An example of the new 'democrats' in action. www.nydailynews.com/news/world/h ... -1.1727271 I also see Clegg somehow thinks he's got Farage on the ropes, accusing him of supporting Putin because he said the EU has blood on it's hands in regards to Ukraine. He intends bringing this point up in their next head to head debate. I really hope he does because I'm pretty sure Farage will demolish him and expose some truths about the people our leaders are supporting over there.

An example of the new 'democrats' in action. www.nydailynews.com/news/world/h ... -1.1727271 I also see Clegg somehow thinks he's got Farage on the ropes, accusing him of supporting Putin because he said the EU has blood on it's hands in regards to Ukraine. He intends bringing this point up in their next head to head debate. I really hope he does because I'm pretty sure Farage will demolish him and expose some truths about the people our leaders are supporting over there.

Far Right protesters ready to storm parliament. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -vote.html

Far Right protesters ready to storm parliament. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -vote.html

German TV investigates who was responsible for the murderous sniper attacks in Kiev, evidence points to the Opposition being involved but the Western powers seem happy to have it all covered up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDPJ-uc ... e=youtu.be

German TV investigates who was responsible for the murderous sniper attacks in Kiev, evidence points to the Opposition being involved but the Western powers seem happy to have it all covered up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDPJ-uc ... e=youtu.be