This is something not seen on the world stage since Nazi Germany annexed country after country before the break out of World War II. Russia has successfully invaded and reclaimed territory lost after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia’s President Putin ordered the takeover of the Crimea peninsula in the last month, effectively stripping it away from the country of Ukraine with little consequence.
The world watched as Russia ignored international policy and stole territory from another nation using a shame of a referendum and by breaking international law and the Geneva Convention. Russia used unmarked troops and subterfuge to work around their own laws and offer a reason to annex the Crimean state from the Ukraine. Not being a NATO nation, and unaffiliated with the European Union, the nation of Ukraine had no real alternative than to turn over the peninsula without loss of life or putting up a fight.
This has been the second time in recent history that Putin’s Russia has invaded another sovereign nation, the first being Georgia, to seize control of more territory lost after the collapse of the former super power. The worst part is, they have gotten away with it over and over again, knowing that no nation wants to go to war with a nuclear state and relatively advanced military. Putin’s Russia is doing as they wish with no concern for the political fallout they cause, which is making a second Cold War, or possible nuclear conflict seem more and more likely. On one had, appeasement has gotten no one anywhere before, as WWII has proven, while on the other hand, direct war with Russia would be the end of it all.