Originally Posted by Heathrow Harry
If the answer to the above is no then all that is left is talking and sanctions
That's 20th century thinking, HH. Perhaps it's time for the recently-formed US Cyber Command to swing into (covert) action - if it hasn't already. Russia used cyberspace to great effect in Georgia, and I've no doubt that a lot of the coverage of "ethnic Russians" asking for the motherland's help is being generated for consumption by useful idiots watching youtube around the world. Judging by comments on BBC News and elsewhere, they appear to be working. We should have learned by now that Putin has no respect for hand-wringing protestations about international law - which in any case is a wooly concept, rooted in western values, to which the Russians have never truly subscribed.
I don't think Putin has any intention of entering all-out war. He has calculated that the west's inability to corral public support for military action means that he can act as he pleases. "International law" can only work when it's observed by both sides and it might be time to play dirty. I wonder what other Stuxnet-like tricks the world has got up its collective sleeves...
Are we going to see a last minute boycott of the 2014 Paralympic Games ..... opening ceremony 7th March .....
Not sure that Putin would really give a stuff mind.
Yes, I should imagine he would see it as an added bonus if he was relieved of the requirement to host a sideshow for the physically-imperfect. Not my opinion, you understand, but one I can quite imagine him holding.