this post is from a russian blogger who lives in the empire and its a good clue to what's up in ukraine now and in the near future;

Today, I want to begin with a small allegorical story.

One upon a time, there was a bear sleeping in his lair and minding his business.  One day, a small group of rodents decided to have some fun time pestering the bear.  So they began running around, making a lot of noise (some even dared the bear to come out and fight them) and even threw colorful little pebbles at the bear.  The bear mostly ignored them hoping they would eventually tire from that silly behavior and go away.  But the rodents not only stayed, they began pelting the bear with even more pebbles and, sure enough, what had to happen happened: one pebble (with “ridiculous genocide claim” written on it) landed right on the eyelid of the bear and that *really* pissed the bear off.  He finally got up, moved to the entrance of his lair and looked at the scurrying rodents.  The bear wondered, what shall he do with these little rodents next?  The rodents wondered about the same thing.  And so they told the bear that if he dares leave his lair, they will pelt him with even more pebbles, so he better not move.  What do you think the bear will do next?

***

Yesterday Putin gave a quite amazing (and short) press conference.  Not only did he declare that Russia recognizes the LDNR Republics in their own, legal, borders (i.e. the full Donetsk and Lugansk regions), he also listed the four steps needed to be taken by the Ukraine to avoid a direct, unilateral, Russian action:

• The Ukraine must recognize Crimea and Sevastopol as Russian territory
• The Ukraine must officially renounce joining NATO
• The Ukraine must negotiate a settlement with the LDNR Republics
• The Ukraine must be demilitarized and declared neutral

This is clearly an ultimatum, but this time, to the authorities in Kiev.

Now a few simple comments:

Since Russia has recognized the LDNR in their original, administrative, regional borders, this means that all the Ukie forces between the current Line of Contact (LOC) and the borders between the original borders of the LDNR and the rest of the Ukraine are now de facto and de jure a foreign occupying force on the territory of a Russian ally which Russia promised to protect........read more.......