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)
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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)

(Via Breitbart ) Oleg Atbashian, a Florida resident and conservative activist who now runs the political parody site “The People’s Cube”, worked as a propaganda agitprop artist for the former Soviet Union, when he was a young adult working in his native Ukraine.
Now that he’s watching the debate unfold about Russia invading his native land, he said he can see the Russian rumor influence operation is making its way into western media the way it did during the Cold War.
He has noticed, for example, the Russian narrative about the Ukranian opposition movement as “Nazis” and “Fascists” appears to be finding itself in Western outlets and American blogs.
“The Pro-Russian propaganda is still being spread. This time, it’s not leftists. It has nothing to do with Communism. It has nothing to do with anti-war sentiment. It has everything to do with Russian national interest and Russian nationalism and Russian dominance in the region. The same people the same town the same figures are being used to plant this information,” Atbashian, comparing it to the Tea Party being maligned as racists in the U.S.
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Der Spiegel cover:

"The Arsonist: Who Will Stop Putin?" pic.twitter.com/mqEJJJ7fUv via @adagamov

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) March 9, 2014

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Vlad Putin considers these “liberty Mines” I’m sure…

On #Crimea border of #Ukraine, Russia forces have placed a minefield. pic.twitter.com/uXudpFTPe8 Photo by @EvgenyFeldman

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) March 8, 2014

Seriously, is there another visual demonstration which highlights Russia’s intent on taking Crimea as part of its own expansion plans?   CLICK HERE for some more incredible pictures of current events.
(Via Telegraph) A new frontier has been laid down within Europe as Russian forces laid landmines at the top of the Crimean peninsula and fired warning shots at a European observer mission. (more…)

Yesterday an RT anchor was removed from the air for criticizing President Vladimir Putin, she was dispatched to Crimea for “additional education“.

Today, a second RT anchor quit over her inability to sell the BS any longer.

The YouTube ID of 55izx6rbCqg?feature=player_embedded is invalid.

…..”And that is why personally, I cannot be part of a network funded by the Russian  government that whitewashes the actions of Putin.    I’m proud to be an American and believe in disseminating  the truth, and that is why, after this newscast, I’m resigning.”…

(New York Daily News)  A Russia Today anchor broke through the Iron Curtain.  Liz Wahl, a (former) Washington, D.C. correspondent for the state-owned  television station, quit live on-air Wednesday because she does not agree with  the network’s backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military  intervention in Ukraine’s Crimea region. (more…)

From what can be determined this event took place in the city of Kharkov close to the border with Russia. The crowd was generally pro-Russia and the Red ribbons and armbands signify a pro-putin, pro-communist, pro-Russia sensibility.

The young men coming from the building were Ukrainian Nationalists, or of the same ideological sympathy as the revolutionary crowds.  The ethnic divisions seem to exacerbate the issues being faced.

The video, while brutal, reflects how stark the ideological differences are within the Ukrainian people. (more…)

(Via UK Telegraph) A TV presenter working for a Kremlin-funded channel who spoke out against Russia’s military invasion in Ukraine live on air has been sent by the broadcaster to Crimea to “better her knowledge” of the situation.

In an off-message tirade, Abby Martin, a Washington-based American news anchor for Russia Today, shocked mostly pro-Russian viewers by announcing she “cannot stress enough” how strongly she felt about presence of its troops in Crimea, saying “Russia was wrong”.

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