Via acTVism Munich

Something that I didn’t know before this interview:

Putin threatened to annex Crimea and Eastern Ukraine if Ukraine joins NATO (Google Translation)

Russian President Vladimir Putin at a closed meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Bucharest on April 4 made it clear that if Ukraine joins the alliance, Ukraine could cease to exist as a single state, Kommersant claims . And Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be recognized by Russia in order to create a “buffer zone” between Georgia (as a member of the alliance) and Russia.

Putin’s Been Wanting Crimea for a Long, Long Time

Publicly, since at least 2008. That year, at the April Russia-NATO summit in Bucharest, Putin made his desire to protect the Russian language known. Putin and his brass have long felt that NATO, especially an expanding one, to be one of the main threats to Russia. I can’t blame him, frankly, but at that summit, he reportedly made clear that if NATO dared to take Ukraine into its fold, Putin will take…Crimea. You know, to protect the Russian speakers.