First Crimea News Today

In ‘Operation Crab Trap,’ three cruise missiles found their mark at Sevastopol, headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

But the forces hoff in and in short order with this new force, probably an increase, maybe double in size, there will be immediate elections, a sham election that says we really want to be russian just like he did in crimea back in 2014, hell have additional legitimacy to bring in more forces and then he begins some conversations with zelenskyy, the government says this is legit. these statelets exist. well start pushing out. >> pull it back out one more time because we mentioned this is the reg...

Th these sanctions are a response but will not deter russian action. they are a response to it, not anything that vladimir putin didnt anticipate. >> steve, i want to get your take on that as well. what was it about putins speech yesterday that is so unsettling considering indifferent, i guess, hes made very inflammatory speeches so many times before. >> well, i think one of the things that is difficult for westerners to understand with regard to putin is, first of all, hes always been like this...

Part of the six-party process on north korea. the russians are part of the syria process. so i think we do need to kind of work with the russians on these international issues. and i think its also important that we have a kind of grander strategy, if you will, where were working with china and other countries. we need russia to understand that they are going to be diplomatically limited by what they have done in ukraine. and by the way, i dont think crimea is going to really help russia. i thin...

Been too friendly with these people. the problem is, he hasnt had the kind of relationships with people like putin that he probably needs to. so these are very tough issues. and the problem with sanctions, as i suggested in princeton, is simply, you know, when people are -- when people face sanctions, their immediate reaction is not to give in to them. and i suspect mr. putin, who certainly is a bit of an irascible character, is not interested in reacting to sanctions by saying, okay, ill now pu...

Be -- is not going to be served by that. >> but you also talk about the need for, despite whats happening right now, that we need to focus less on ukraine, and more on the broader ambitions of russia. so what do you think those ambitions are? >> well, i think we -- you know, this is not just about crimea. crimea is a symbol of what putin has in mind for russia. he seems to -- if not recreating the soviet union, certainly recreating some eastern power base. so i think its very necessary that we n...