The Perils of Kissinger's Ukraine Strategy

If the New York Times is correct, the first moves following the deposing of the pro-Russian president in Kiev, which led the majority ethnic Russians in the Crimea to go out on the street and demand independence came not from Moscow but from the irredentist people themselves. Putin certainly resented the Ukraine’s desire to find its future in the Western sphere of influence and he was happy to seize the opportunity offered by the actions of the Russophiles to effectively takeover the Crimea. Here the Russian soldiers were welcomed as liberators. Should Putin, as Kissinger suggests, give up Crimea in return for a Ukrainian promise not to join NATO, then his fellow nationalists both in Russia and the Ukraine would see such a deal as a humiliating betrayal of his people.