<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="clearfix mbs pbs _1_m"><div class="_3dp _29k"><div class="_1_n fsm fwn fcg"><div class="uiSelector inlineBlock audienceSelector timelineAudienceSelector audienceSelectorNoTruncate dynamicIconSelector uiSelectorNormal uiSelectorDynamicTooltip"><div class="uiToggle wrap"><a data-hover="tooltip" aria-label="Public" data-tooltip-alignh="center" class="uiSelectorButton uiButton uiButtonSuppressed uiButtonNoText" href="https://www.facebook.com/cgestabrook#" role="button" aria-haspopup="1" aria-expanded="false" ajaxify="/ajax/privacy/privacy_menu.php?iconsize=small&oid=10202185939149780" data-oid="10202185939149780" data-label="" data-length="30" data-tooltip="Public" rel="toggle"></a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="userContentWrapper aboveUnitContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><div class="_wk mbm"><span class="userContent">"...Washington’s
Ukraine policy ... leaves Putin with few options. If he deploys troops
to defend ethnic Russians in the East, then Obama will demand additional
economic sanctions, a no-fly zone, NATO deployment, and the cutting off
of natural gas and oil supplies to
Europe. On the other hand, if Putin does nothing, then the attacks
against Russian-speaking people in Ukraine (like Sunday’s shootout at an
Eastern checkpoint that left three people dead) will intensify and the
US will provide covert military and logistical support to neo-Nazi
extremists in the Interior Ministry, just as they have with jihadi
terrorists in Syria and Libya. That will hurtle Ukraine into a
devastating civil war that will damage Russia’s economy and undermine
its national security. Anyway you look at it, Russia loses."</span></div><div class="_wk mbm"><span class="userContent"><br></span></div><div class="_wk mbm"><span class="userContent"><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/23/putins-dilemma/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/23/putins-dilemma/</a></span></div></div></body></html>