Morning After In Crimea

摘要

Empires have spilled blood and spent treasure for control of Crimea for more than 2,500 years, ever since the ancient Greeks first made it their colony. It took Russian President Vladimir Putin less than three weeks-and not a single shot fired in anger-to wrest the peninsula from Ukraine. On March 18, two days after a referendum showed that an overwhelming majority of Cri-means wanted to be annexed by Russia, Putin signed a decree formalizing the arrangement. The U.S. and its European allies barely had time to prepare a round of mild sanctions-mainly travel restrictions and asset freezes for a handful of officials-which the master of the Kremlin shrugged off.