I know zip about Ukraine & Crimea; this will not prevent me from having opinions about Ukraine & Crimea.
(Look ma! I’m pundit-ing!)
Anyway, the one thought that does keep popping up in me noggin is that Putin’s push in Crimea is a sign of weakness, not strength.
Soldiers, guns, tanks: these are artifacts of failure (of diplomacy, of cunning, of imagination); their use signals a breakdown, not a triumph.