Peter, the Russians are there to protect the people of East Ukraine from the maniacs who rose up in Kiev.
Actually in most of the troubles it seems like its the pro Ukrainians who get beaten a soon as they come out of hiding. As reported numerous times by independent reporters.
Could you be so kind an provide a (at least ever so slightly trust worthy) source for that claim. It seems so counter- intuitive (also looking at the fact that the pro Russian Yanukovich had been elected my a majority back in the last elections).
Actually its regarded as common knowledge, even in the Crimea it wasn't regarded as a slam dunk for all sorts of reasons.
Most polls (credible ones), have shown the east do not want to be part of Russia. The bloke running Crimea and his party only got a couple of percent at the last credible election.
As for why they got a pro Russian president, there's no mystery in that, its the same as why some other country's can get governments they don't want. As with whats common when you have a sh!t load of contenders, the one who can muster the biggest block wins.
So in this case, the pro western ones couldn't put their differences aside and go for a single candidate. You get the same in Egypt, and some European countrys. Sometimes theres a huge veiw on the public side towards one way, but their cannidates just squabble against one another and hence loose.