re: #265 Dr Lizardo

Precisely. He knew he could get away with - and he did. IIRC, it was done with the knowledge and (tacit) approval of the WWII Allied Powers. To the best of my knowledge, no one said to Beneš, “Uh…you really sure you wanna do that, buddy?”

International law is enforced by the great powers, therefore it usually falls more heavily on smaller states than large ones. But this may be Putin’s attempt to back away without losing (too much) face, since those breakaway regions were already pretty much under Russian control.

It would be a very bad idea for western powers to let this pass, no matter how little it actually changes things.