hi doma,
if you are right that it's about the pipelines, i think he may go into eastern ukraine. good point.
eastern ukraine is also the bread basket of central and eastern europe and i have read that western companies have wanted access to its soil for years.
food and energy. kinda intrinsic to russia.
if it's about access to the mediterranean, the crimea will do.
we'll see as we cannot really know the scope of putin's current ambitions. i agree he's not going to allow the pipelines to be tolled more heavily by a hostile neighbour.
holding the crimean peninsula could be his bargaining chip as he also has to renew the navy base in 2017.
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