UKRAINE UPDATE – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  It is hard to get precise information on what's happening in Ukraine, in part because we don't know who's lying.  But the situation is grim, with a serious threat of Russian military intervention.  From London's Telegraph:   

Ukraine accused Russia of staging an "armed invasion" of Crimea on Friday as the ex-Soviet state's ousted leader prepared to emerge defiant from five days of hiding after winning protection from Moscow.

Unidentified armed men were patrolling outside of Crimea's main airport early Friday while gunmen were also reported to have seized another airfield on the southwest of the peninsula where ethnic Russians are a majority and where pro-Moscow sentiment runs high.

Western governments have been watching with increasing worry as Kiev's new pro-EU rulers grapple with dual threats of economic collapse and cession from Russified southern and eastern regions of the divided nation, which had backed fugitive ex-president Viktor Yanukovych.

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week stoked concerns that Moscow might use its military might to sway the outcome of Ukraine's three-month standoff by ordering snap combat drills near its border involving 150,000 troops and nearly 900 tanks.

COMMENT:  This is occurring where East meets West in Europe.  If Putin should move militarily, and get away with it, it would mark a new day in international relations – a rising Russia facing a weakening America, with a perpetually frightened Western Europe in the middle.  And a militant China rising in Asia.

Aren't you glad Obama is in the White House?

February 28, 2014