Very powerful article by a very influential journal.
Crisis in Ukraine Kidnapped by the Kremlin The West can punish Putin's
Russia for its belligerence in Ukraine. But only if it is prepared to pay a
priceMar 8th 2014
AS YOU read this, 46m people are being held hostage in Ukraine. Vladimir
Putin has pulled Russian troops back from the country's eastern border. But
he has also demanded that the West keep out and that the new government in
Kiev should once again look towards Russia. Don't be alarmed, he says with
unambiguous menace, invasion is a last resort.
Some in the West will argue that the starting point for policy is to
recognise reality, however unpalatable. Let Mr Putin keep the Crimean
peninsula, which he occupied just over a week ago. It has a
Russian-speaking majority and was anyway part of Russia until 1954. As for
Ukraine as a whole, Russia is bound to dominate it, because it cares more
about the country than the West does. America and the European Union must
of course protest, but they would do well to avoid a useless confrontation
that would harm their own economies, threaten their energy supplies and
might plunge Ukraine into war. Mr Putin has offered a way out and the West
should grasp it.
That thinking is mistaken. In the past week Mr Putin has trampled over
norms that buttress the international order and he has established
dangerous precedents that go far beyond Ukraine (see
article<http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21598744-having-occupied-crimea-russia-stirring-up-trouble-eastern-ukraine-end>).
Giving in to kidnappers is always dangerous: those who fail to take a stand
to start with often face graver trials later on.
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