Quote Originally Posted by diogen_ View Post
This is indeed a huge moral dilemma Russia faces. But Putin was very specific that the accretion of the whole Novorissiya to Ukraine and not just two of its constituent regions was the historic blunder. Thus, the task at hand as he sees it is to liberate the rest of the disputed territories, and only then he will accede to embrace the newly fledged province to Russia. The process is in the making now. Contrariwise, once he were to artificially splinter off Donbass from Novorissiya, the remaining part of it would be under severe duress of unmitigated suffering of not being able to satisfy its so much cherished yet unattainable yearning to join Russia. President of Russia simply can’t afford such a myopic stance. How can he explain away his hastiness to future generations?
Oh I didn't know he had said that. So maybe he's waiting. That's quite a game of dare he's playing then.
If he can pull that off, then Russia has well and truly arrived, and Putin will be legend. Completely notwithstanding any ethical considerations, it would be pure genius to get not only Crimea, but the whole "Novorossiya" without meeting any meaningful resistance.

While the US shows the world again and again how utterly incompetent they are att understanding any people at all, outside their own borders. Unless of course the destruction and suffering they are causing is deliberate.

In that case, will Putin draw the line with Pridnestrovie, or not?
That's officially Moldova, a different country, although not NATO and not EU.

(I have actually been in Pridnestrovie, and those people LOVE Russia and they also idolize the Soviet Union. They are not even ethnic Russians, most of them, but they love it anyway. They have big banners all around town in Tiraspol and Bender, saying nice things about Russia... It's a very fascinating place - but does not appear on any map, hence I did not actually know it was there, until I was told I needed a "visa" for it, in order to travel from Kishinev to Odessa. w00t! It turned out to be a quite unique place of very independent minded and cool people. They have something in common with the People's Republics in Lugansk and Donetsk, I think.)

If Putin does NOT plan to do anything more in Ukraine, because he's suddenly decided that he DOES respect the borders of Ukraine, then I think the decent thing to do would be to try to calm things down in Ukraine to the very best of Russia's ability. Washington is right on one question - of course the "people's republics" would listen, if Russia told them in no uncertain terms!

It's not right to let people ruin their own lives, destroy their communities and have lives lost for a hopeless cause. If Putin knows he will never annex, he should try to patch things up within the existing borders, rather than letting things progress any further. Anything else is just spiteful and cruel!

But what about Odessa, at the Westernmost tip of "Novorossiya". It has no people's republic and although they speak Russian, how much do they identify with Russia? Would they really welcome Russia, if that is the end game of all this?