Kiev crowds circle president's HQ. More.

If the opposition fails, Ukraine will become a vassal state of Russia. If the opposition wins, Crimea and the eastern Ukraine, where Russians are a majority, may try to run to the arms of Mother Russia. Putin, whose (and Kutshma´s) puppet Yanukovitsh is, could not say no to them. After all, Crimea was a part of Russia until 1954, and the loss of it and especially that of Ukraine - for both historical and economical reasons - was and is a hard pill to swallow for the Russians. Even moderate Russians´ view of Ukrainian independence, nationalism and the Ukrainians themselves is very often blatantly negative and racist. The Russians can´t understand why the Ukrainians would want to be Ukrainians and independent, when they could be Russians and Ukraine a part of Russia.