Set to increase his influence exponentially Russia’s Vladimir Putin must be smiling broadly.   
Already in strong geo-political, economic and diplomatic alignment with Iran.   Now helping Egypt in their freedom fight to rid themselves of the Muslim Brotherhood and expanding military bases in Alexandria; and essentially set up to declare victory in Syria.  Putin has become the anti-Obama.
In essence you have Obama’s only Middle East Geo-Political ally as Turkey’s *Erdogan.    Jordan is trying to stay in the middle, Syria, Iran, and now Egypt aligning with Russia albeit for different reasons.
TEL AVIV – Arab countries in the Middle East widely expect Syrian President  Bashar al-Assad to win the rebel-led insurgency that has been targeting his  regime for the last three years, thereby strengthening Russia’s presence in the  region.
The anticipated victory will further solidify the position of the large  Russian Navy fleet docked at Syria’s Tartus port. That position is more  strategic now that Russia has seized the Ukrainian naval headquarters located in  Sevastopol, where Moscow stationed its Black Sea Fleet.
Control of both the Tartus and Sevastopol ports provides Russia, under  President Vladimir Putin, with open access to the Mediterranean, the Indian  Ocean and beyond for both military and energy needs. (more…)

RUSSIA – President Vladimir Putin completed the annexation of Crimea on Friday, signing the peninsula into Russia at nearly the same time his Ukrainian counterpart sealed a deal pulling his country closer into Europe’s orbit.
Putin said he saw no need to further retaliate against U.S. sanctions, a newly conciliatory tone reflecting an apparent attempt to contain one of the worst crises in Russia’s relations with the West since the Cold War.
Putin hailed the incorporation of Crimea into Russia as a ‘‘remarkable event’’ before he signed the parliament bills into law in the Kremlin on Friday. He ordered fireworks in Moscow and Crimea.  (link)

Throughout history the number one justification used to begin a geographic campaign for territory is the claim to protect a minority within the land mass you seek.
(Via Reuters) Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia’s treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian.
Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment.
Russia fully supported the protection of the rights of linguistic minorities, a Moscow diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to a summary of the session issued by the U.N.’s information department. (more…)

Remember as you read this, the guys chopping off the heads and running human slaughter houses are the folks Senator John McCain says we should be supporting…
(Via Right Scoop) When the stories are finally told about what really happened in Syria during this civil war, I suspect Hitler will no longer be viewed as the most evil person ever born.
Walid Shoebat has been researching this for the past two weeks and tells me he’s never seen anything so horrific in his life. If you’ve ever been to his site and seen the atrocities he’s exposed, you should understand he doesn’t say this lightly.
What he’s found through first-hand testimony and actual video footage that he’s posted on his site are human slaughter houses in Syria used to exterminate Christians and Muslims. Yes, Muslims. They are run by Syrian rebel Takfiri Jihadists groups. One such group is called ISIS, which stands for the Islamic group of Iraq and Syria. Another group is called Umm Muhammad. These rebel groups were rounding up Christians and Muslims who disagreed with the Takfiri ideology, decapitating them from the root of their necks and hanging them upside down like cattle. (more…)

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Nothing empowers aggressive action like telling the bully you’ll do nothing to stop him.

WASHINGTON – The White House said Wednesday that President Obama is not actively considering military force as an option in the crisis in Ukraine.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said military action is “certainly not at the forefront of discussions” among the president and his top advisers, saying that Mr. Obama is looking instead at imposing further economic sanctions against Russian leaders for the takeover of Crimea.  “You can expect further costs to be imposed on Russia,” Mr. Carney said.  (link)

One hour later in Ukraine/Crimea: (more…)

Putin plays “Risk”, Potus plays “Sorry”. 

Remember it was all the way back on February 19th when Obama promised to take action if Vladimir Putin “stepped over the line” and used military action in Crimea. Russia has not only used military action, it has annexed Crimea.  So today:
WASHINGTON DC – President Barack Obama today imposed sanctions on seven top Russian government officials and four others from Ukraine and warned Russia will face more penalties if it doesn’t pull back from Crimea.
“Continued Russian military intervention in Ukraine will only deepen Russia’s diplomatic isolation and exact a greater toll on the Russian economy,” Obama said at the White House. The U.S. can “calibrate our response” based on whether Russia chooses “to escalate or to de-escalate the situation.”
The U.S. actions, which mark the broadest use of sanctions on Russia since the end of the Cold War, were made in concert with the 28-member European Union, which imposed its own set of penalties. The U.S. also included a ban on travel visas.

Obama left the door open for diplomacy, saying Russia must pull its forces back to their bases in Crimea, accept international monitors and open discussions with the government in Kiev.  (read more)
 

BBC reporting 95.5% in #Crimea voted to join Russia. Which means that North Korea will claim their dictator is 4.5% better.

— Darth Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) March 16, 2014

(Reuters Report) Russian state media said Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia on Sunday, as Kiev accused Moscow of pouring forces into the peninsula and warned separatist leaders “the ground will burn under their feet”.
RIA news agency said 93 percent backed annexation, citing an exit poll released as voting ended at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). Another Russian agency said turnout was over 80 percent.
Caught in an East-West crisis reminiscent of the Cold War, Kiev said Russia’s build-up of forces in the Black Sea region was in “crude violation” of an international treaty, and announced plans to arm and train 20,000 members of a newly-created National Guard to defend the nation. (link)
(more…)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s national security team discussed the Ukraine crisis in a session at the White House on Saturday after a last-ditch bid to find a diplomatic solution to the Cold War-style standoff with Russia floundered.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who just returned from talks with his Russian counterpart in London, was at the White House meeting along with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
Obama did not attend the meeting but was being briefed about it and other developments involving Ukraine, said Laura Lucas Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.  (read more)

VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky travels to the Kherson region of mainland Ukraine to both the Ukrainian and Russian checkpoints. At the Ukrainian checkpoint, Simon goes inside one of their tanks, and speaks to the commander, who says that despite his Russian blood he will defend all invaders. But at the Russian checkpoint, the exchange isn’t quite as cordial. (link)