Crimea River

In probably the biggest non-surprise of yesterday, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

Next will come the mopping-up of Ukrainian military units on the peninsula. They have no place to run to and no hope of relief, so their choices are to give up or die futilely or bravely, depending on your point of view.

My quick Googling is that the Crimea has about 1.9 million people and 58% of them are Russians. Which is a hell of a lot of pro-Russian voters to take out of the next Ukrainian election. Unless, of course, the Ukrainians say that the people in the Crimea are still Ukrainians and they get to vote.

Manwhile, Vice-President Biden is running his mouth, which is his main talent. He seems to have no problem with invading another country, at least when we do it. When someone else does it, that's a violation of international norms. You can find idiots babbling on about economic sanctions, but they don't explain what effect that'll have on a country that has the eighth largest economy in the world and which is a major exporter of natural gas to Europe. Nor do they bother to think how the investors in Europe and the US will scream if the Russians retaliate by confiscating their investments in Russian projects.

UPDATE: As BadTux has pointed out, Putin merely dusted off one of our own plays when we were proclaiming shit like "Manifest Destiny".