Sending money to support democratic development in countries is not illegal and not a coup. Russia is only allowed to have a base in Crimea with the permission of the Ukrainian Government. Russia has to pay the Ukrainian government a lease EVERY YEAR IN ORDER TO KEEP USING THE BASE.
There was no legal, or international sanctioned referendum in Crimea. The Ballot only had two options on it, independence or join Russia. People wanting to remain in Ukraine were not given any option to mark that on the ballot because it was not there, which means even if the referendum was legal, it was fraudulent because it did not allow the people of the choice of remaining in Ukraine.
History is great, but it does not supercede the UN Charter which says that all United Nations members have their territorial integrity recognized and that such territory cannot be annexed by other countries. Further, Russia signed a treaty in 1994 in which they agreed to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity if they gave up their Nuclear Weapons to the Russian Federation. Russia also promised in a revisement of the CFE treaty in 1997 to respect the territorial integrity of all Eastern European Countries.
Russia had a right to keep troops on the bases they were LEASING in Crimea. They did not have right to deploy those troops off base to surround and take over Ukrainian Police, Military, and government buildings and sites throughout the province and then ANNEX the province into Russia. Doing so is an invasion and is illegal.
Russian forces based in Crimea have no more right to deploy and take government, police, and military buildings than the US military based in Okinawa Japan would have right to do the same. Its illegal to do so, and the invasion of another countries territory!
I know NATO expanded long before the Crimea issue and there was NEVER any formal agreement or treaty which stated that Eastern European countries were not allowed to join NATO.
The United States invaded Afghanistan because it was first attacked by terrorist based in Afghanistan and protected the Afghan government at that time.
The United States and other countries invaded Iraq in 2003 because of SADDAM's failure to comply with UN Security Council Resolutions passed in regards to his ILLEGAL INVASION AND ANNEXATION of Kuwait in 1990!
A country has to VOLUNTEER to become a member of NATO or the EU. NATO and the EU don't take anything. Norway is not a member of the EU and Sweden and Finland are not members of NATO. Neither is Swizterland or Austria members of NATO. But should they change their minds in the future, they are allowed to apply for membership, but they have to independently apply first, that is the only away you can become a member of NATO or the EU. So this idea that NATO and the EU are swallowing or, taking over, or invading anything in Europe is NONSENSE.
The United States has had a national security interest in protecting European Democracy for over a hundred years now. That is not going to change.
They made an agreement with the elected government not the jew/neo-nazi coup government. The coup government, which is illegal and unconstitutional has no right to abrogate treaties. And if you read the treaty it clearly says no such thing about russian troops being restricted to bases only, particularly when its military bases are under threat during a coup.
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The new government in Ukraine has not violated or abrogated Russia's Lease agreement with Ukraine over the base in Crimea. Its is the Russians that have violated the agreement by deploying tanks and troops into civilian area's of crimea in order to sieze Ukrainian government, military, and police buildings. That's ILLEGAL, and invasion, you can't do that.
US Marines based in Okinawa Japan are NOT allowed to deploy in combat formations off base in order to seize property owned by Japanese private citizens or the Japanese government. That is the same basing deal the Russians had with the Ukrainians in Crimea, and the grossly violated it!
The only military bases that were ever threatened in Crimea, were Ukrainian military bases which the Russians forced the Ukrainian military to leave. Unlike the Russians, the Ukrainian military in Crimea, NEVER DEPLOYED OFF BASE!
There is video of Russian forces breaking into government buildings on the last day of February 2014. Russian forces showed up outside Ukrainian Army bases in the week that followed as well. All of those actions were ILLEGAL and so was the so called referendum which took place AFTER Russian forces deployed off base. An Illegal referendum can NEVER make the illegal actions of the Russian military in Crimea, legit.
The US overthrew the Afghan government because it was protecting terrorist who murdered 3,000 people on 911. The current democratically elected government that was put in place by NATO and the United States continues to run the country. The Afghan military built and trained by NATO has taken over all combat operations from NATO. By January 2015, all but perhaps a small residual force of NATO troops will have left the country. Despite that, whats left of the Taliban and Al quada which were thrown out of Government in 2001, continue to be out of government and remain in the hills hiding from the Afghan army and when they can't do that, they turn tail and run into Afghanistan.
A far different situation compared to how the Soviet Union left Afghanistan in 1989. The Soviets fully lost when the Afghan dictatorship they installed was overthrown 3 years after they left.
So far, NATO has been riding a wave of victory compared to the Soviets in Afghanistan. That's because NATO is actually there to help improve the lives of Afghan families everywhere unlike the Soviets who simply tried to exterminate anyone living in the countryside.
It was the UN Security Council that authorized the use of military force by the United States and another nations in order to keep Iraq in compliance or wanted it violated UN Security Council Resolutions. These resolutions were passed in 1990 before the first Gulf War and authorized US airstrikes every year after the end of the First Gulf War as well as the ground invasion that followed in 2003.
While nearly a trillion dollars was spent, it was spent over a period of 10 years and was never more than 20% of the overall defense budget which was only 4.5% of annual US GDP, less than the US defense spending during the peacetime of the 1980s when the US was spending 6% of its GDP on defense.
Saddam's failure to verifiably disarm of all WMD and WMD related production facilities was a part of the reason a ground invasion proved necessary to enforce UN Security Council Resolutions against Iraq in 2003 that Iraq had been in violation of for years.
The number of Iraqi civilians killed number about 123,000 according to the most accurate sources. Most Iraqi civilians were murdered by other Iraqi's and not foreign troops. The number of civilians being murdered on an annual basis in Iraq is far less now than it was while Saddam was in power.
Russia is a member of the United Nations and agreed to the UN charter. That is a formal agreement under which they agreed to respect the territorial integrity of every member state of the UN including Ukraine. A second formal agreement under which Russia agreed to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine was when Ukraine handed its nuclear weapons to Russia in 1994. A third formal agreement in which Russia agreed to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity was when it signed the revised CFE treaty of 1997. It agreed under that treaty to respect the territorial integrity of all Eastern European states.
In contrast, there was NEVER any formal agreement in which NATO agreed never to allow Eastern European countries to join NATO.
You can't pretend to be for the "rule of law" in Crimea, and against it when Kosovo seceded from serbia and the US supported it. You can't pretend to be for dishonoring informal agreements with russia not to expand NATO, than expect Russia to sit by and hold Russia to informal treaties with an unelected kiev government it never made informal agreements with in the first place..
If there had been gross human rights violations in Crimea by the Ukrainian military against citizens in Crimea, then under international law Crimea would have a case for succession, independent of the Ukrainian constitution. But that never happened. The Ukrainian military stayed on its bases and did not hurt anyone in Crimea.
So its not the same as Kosovo at all. Kosovo was a victim of genocide by the Serbian military and under international law, had a right to at least have its case for independence considered independent of Serbia.
There are three formal agreements which Russia signed, the first in 1991 upon Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union, the second the exchange of nuclear weapons in 1994, and the third the revised CFE treaty in 1997. Under all these formal agreements Russia agreed to honor and respect Ukraine's territorial integrity.
In contrast, there was never any formal agreement in which NATO agreed not to allow Eastern European countries to join NATO.
And that is the thing, that is why the US Government is hated worldwide, for their hypocrisy. They accuse others of aggression, when in reality, they are the biggest threat to world peace, they are the ones who are nationbuilding and overthrowing governments whether it be Yugoslavia, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine etc. That is why most of the world laughs when you make these claims
Most of the world countries have and want good relationships with the United States. Most of the world recognizes Kosovo as an independent State. NATO intervened in Serbia and Kosovo to end genocide and gross human rights violations. The United States and other member states with the authorization of the United Nations UN Security Council used military force against Saddam's Iraq from 1991 through 2003. US and UN member states that had troops on the ground in Iraq, had that authorized annually every year by the United Nations through the end of 2011 when the last foreign troops left Iraq.
The UN security Council approved the NATO bombing in Libya in order to protect civilians from government forces that were killing them.
The United States has primarily sent non-lethal aid to civilians in Syria, unlike Russia which rushes the latest military hardware to Syrian dictator.
The US has sent economic aid to Ukraine as well as money for democratic development. Compare that to Russia which invaded the country and annexed the Crimea.
Number of UN Nations approving Kosovo's Independence from Serbia:
110
Number of UN Nations approving Russia's annexation of Crimea:
5
