Russia's War Against Ukraine
Thanassis Cambanis: Why Putin’s Crimea move crosses the line
Russian national flag flutter in the wind near a city clock tower at a railway station during celebrations to mark the transition to Moscow time in Simferopol on March 30, 2014. As the rest of Europe was set to move their clocks one hour forward for summer on Sunday, in Crimea, residents braced for a two-hour jump into the timezone of their new masters in Moscow. AFP PHOTO / DMITRY SEREBRYAKOV
WHAT HAPPENED IN UKRAINE over the past month left even veteran policy-watchers shaking their heads. One day, citizens were serving tea to the heroic demonstrators in Kiev’s Euromaidan, united against an authoritarian president. Almost the next, anonymous special forces fighters in balaclavas were swarming Crimea, answering to no known leader or government, while Europe and the United States grasped in vain for ways to influence events.
