He is serious, this isn't a bluff. Putin didn't get much resistance from the international community when Crimea was annexed. Merely some harsh words. He has the green light from the west, and oil control of plenty European countries.
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Probably the biggest reason why not too much Western effort was put into Crimea was '
and then what'. The population was overwhelmingly pro-Russian so it would have been a bitch and very ugly to do much with it. While the sentiment of the Crimeans was heavily shaped by population shifts and ethnic cleansing operations under the Soviets, it's kind of an '
is what it is' scenario.
It's important to note that there is not one unified Ukraine with 'pure-blood Ukrainians' up to the border. Operations such as the Holodomor whittled down the 'native' population and forced immigration filled in in some areas enough to where they can and are maintaining autonomous control of large swaths of the country. And if they didn't, they would probably be subject to fairly extreme atrocities by the western-backed 'Ukrainians'.
Since the Soviet population engineering (a common characteristic of Communist rule) happened generations ago, there are plenty of people who are mixed culturally, genetically, and philosophically. Most people on both sides fear what would happen to them personally if the other side got the upper hand, and rightly so I suspect.
Interestingly, some of the Russian-speaking Ukrainians I know have a pretty strong negative feeling about the Soviet Union, and it certainly has spilled over to Russia more generally. They seem to not trust or like anyone, and that even applies to they who are 'Jews' and their feelings toward Israel in some cases. I think that that is exactly the correct mindset to have. For anyone. Few if any 'leaderships' see any population as anything more than a tool.
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I would council anyone who thinks that the WEF's 'great reset' plan sounds like the way to go to be prepared for the basic Soviet tactics to be employed until there are only about 1-in-10 people left. That will be 'sustainable'. People who think they can be in that 10% have at least a logical (if very evil) reason to support them. People who have not made that calculation are simply grist for the mill.