re: #15 Sergey Romanov

Interestingly, Putin doesn’t hurry to annex Luganda and Dombabwe or even to *seriously* acknowledge the “referendums” (aside from saying he “respects” them). There’s an opinion that annexing these two poor oblasts alone was not in his plans. And the provocations in the other regions seem to have failed.

Donestsk was the plum Putin was after. Home of Yanuk, after all, as well as more pro-Russian types, as well as having ports and tourism on the Black Sea.