Ultimately, the people of Crimea are going to decide Crimea's future, not Russia and not NATO. A referendum is coming on March 30th.
This is kind of what I'm thinking.
All the media is completely one-side on the entire issue. One thing I've learned is that there is always, always, another side.
Like, how many people are aware that Crimea was annexed into Ukraine in 1954, and before that it had been part of.... Russia?
This, from 2012:
http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/4418/why-did-the-ussr-give-crimea-to-ukraine
Another tidbit from Wikipedia :
"On 24 August 2009,
anti-Ukrainian demonstrations were held in Crimea by ethnic Russian residents. Sergei Tsekov (of the Russian Bloc[35] and then deputy speaker of the Crimean parliament[36]) said then that he hoped that Russia would treat the Crimea the same way as it had treated South Ossetia and Abkhazia."
It seems to me that the untold story here is that of a once independent region, annexed into Ukraine, with very strong Russian ties.
It would be like the USA giving Texas to Mexico, then Mexico deciding it was going to snub the USA and link up with Cuba. Texans wouldn't be too happy about it.
Yes that's a bit dramatic, but I think there is another side to this story - one which our brain dead, pathetic, bought and paid for western media is not presenting.