It's intersting to see the Russian point of view on this. I'm not completely unsympathetic. I think we should be more more suspicious of outfits like the IMF than we are, and it's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that the west had their hand in the uprising once they realized that Yanukovych was switching sides to the Russians--in no small part due to IMF and EU austerity measures.
That said, the sympathy quickly dissipated when Putin unilaterally annexed Russia. Really, what did he expect. You do something that audacious, you are going to get a response--in this case, sanctions. Then there was the shooting down of the civilian aircraft. Despite substantial evidence that this airliner was shot down by anti-Ukraine rebel forces, the Russian media (and Russians generally) clung to this silly notion that the rebels didn't have anti-aircraft capability and/or it was actually the Ukraine government that shot the jet down in order to frame the Russians.
Bottom line for me is Putin is dangerous and must be contained.
That said, the sympathy quickly dissipated when Putin unilaterally annexed Russia. Really, what did he expect. You do something that audacious, you are going to get a response--in this case, sanctions. Then there was the shooting down of the civilian aircraft. Despite substantial evidence that this airliner was shot down by anti-Ukraine rebel forces, the Russian media (and Russians generally) clung to this silly notion that the rebels didn't have anti-aircraft capability and/or it was actually the Ukraine government that shot the jet down in order to frame the Russians.
Bottom line for me is Putin is dangerous and must be contained.