Putin and Medvedev have clearly stated- and enacted- their foreign policy. Despite neocon ranting there are cooler heads in the NATO that disagree with admitting the two states. NATO doesn't need more shit. It's already got its hands full with the Baltic republics and the ex-Warsaw Pact, whose members once prone always prone.
MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine said it reserved the right to bar Russian warships dispatched to the Georgian coast from returning to their Ukrainian base of Sevastopol, Interfax news agency reported.
"Georgian Attack Killed 1,600 S Ossatians
Ukrainian base of Sevastopol
Sevastopol and Crimea consider themselves to be Russian.
I told them the Kosovo decision was a mad one, I told'em! But does anyone ever listen to me?
Noooo... Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Um, what? Define historically Russian. If we're talking Tsarist Russia the Baltics and Poland. If we're talking the USSR, Baltics. The other two reasons make sense.
This refers to when Kruschchev, a Ukrainian, "gave" the Ukraine all its present territories which have a vast majority of Russians in 1954. Today's Russia has this perception of the situation whether propaganda or not.
As for the past centuries you are right. A look at the changing borders and empires that have come and gone makes for much confusion. What remains is the present day contention that does echo Hitler's claim over territories with a strong German "ethnic" presence, were it not for NATO enchroachment since the cancellation of the USSR. I suppose that if the Warsaw Pact were cozying up to Saskatchewan the US would be touchy, too.
