-TSS-

I'm very pessimistic about all this. The thing has been allowed to escalate to a situation where none of the parties involved has an honourable retreat. Goes to say much about our Finnish government that they fully support the EU-sanctions on Russia because of Ukraine even though we in Finland are desperately dependant on trade with Russia. WTF!!! Idiots but they have been voted in by ourselves.

It's not always easy to be a super-power. The US would probably love to stay clear of this dispute but the US-credibility as a super-power requires them to take a stand; not least because of the treaty they signed 20 years ago.

Conspiracy-theorists were disappointed, once again.

It all goes to show what an achievement finding the wreck of the Air France plane 5 years ago really was as the plane went down in a much more difficult place.

I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to carry out a terrorist-attack against Malaysia but as 150 of the passengers were Chinese it could be that they were the target. I mean, if this has been a terrorist-attack the likelihood of which is waning as the time goes by.

According to news-reports the Iranians were heading for Sweden. A relative of one if them who is living in Sweden has confirmed this.

Reminds me of the incident of the Korean plane which the Soviets shot down for fear of the plane being on a spy-mission. I guess the bad publicity the Russians got for shooting down a plane full of innocent civilians was one reason why some years later Mathias Rust was able to fly unhindered to the Red Square in Moscow with his Cessna.

Russia will host the soccer world cup in 2018. It is easily the biggest and most followed sporting event in the world. Easily much bigger than even summer olympics.

It's all going to the plan for the Russians. The news of Ukraine is slowly dieing down and little by little everyone seems to accept that the Crimea is now de facto a part of Russia. What is going to happen next? Will Putin go after other former Soviet republics under the excuse of protecting the Russian-speaking minorities?

If Estonia weren't a NATO-member Russians would probably have invaded Estonia during the bronze statue-dispute a few years ago.

I think the experiences from the 80's of the olympic boycotts have shown how unproductive such measures are and hopefully never be used again.

It has always been a known fact that Ukraine has been sharply divided to a Ukrainian part and a Russian part. However, that does not give the Russians any excuse to invade. Imagine if France attacked Canada by saying they are protecting their fellow Frenchmen in Quebec.

I think a healthy dose of nationalism goes 1:1 to an individual level that you respect others but don't let yourself be overrun by other people. The same applies to the national level. I think most western countries with allowing mass-immigration have completely forgotten this.

I can't think of a more dangerous ingredient for a conflict or even a possible war than abandoning a healthy dose of nationalism. Multicultural nations which have been forced to stick together have eventually crumbled. The similar thing with the EU and the Schengen-treaty which is a blunder of a lifetime that Finland signed to it. The results are all too visible already and who knows what the future will bring.

I guess you in Canada have quite a large Ukrainian community living in your country therefore this crisi may have even some domestic implications.

According to the constitution of Ukraine there is nothing illegal about ousting the president: http://www.president.gov.ua/en/content/constitution.html

As I said earlier, the ideology of the people who are in charge in Ukraine now and whom the EU supports is not that far from the ideology of politicians and parties in Western-Europe which have been relegated into a pariah-status and have been universally condemned as bigots.

There's not a chance that the EU would take up sanctions against Russia as Germany receives 30% of its energy in the form of Russian gas. Germany is not the only one. Finland is another.

Remember the news a couple of weeks ago from South-Africa when trapped miners refused to be rescued because as illegal immigrants they feared deportation? Even though from the Western-European and North-American perspective South-Africa has an image of a terrible crime ridden country from the African pov it is a wealthy country full of opportunities.

I agree with you. I can understand if this is a big news in South-Africa but being the top news on BBC world service? WTF?

It's funny how different standards are applied to politicians in different countries. After all, the people who seized power in Ukraine are nationalists and they are eagerly supported by the EU. Yet at the same time the home-grown nationalists in various EU-countries have been relegated into a pariah-status. They are considered as some sort of neo-nazis and racists.

The US supportede cutting up Yugoslavia into pieces while Russia oposed it. Now it is the other way round with Ukraine.

1) Is Ukraine important in the point of view of the USA? 2) Is the US economy in a good enough shape that it can risk another war? 3) Is Obama a chicken-shit?

If East-Ukraine is declared an independent country of its own I wonder how many countries would recognise it. Russia for sure and Belarus perhaps but that's about it.

Russia might be thrown out of G8. Whether that would be a price worth paying for the Ukrainian adventure is debatable.