Livadia Palace (Russian: Ливадийский дворец, Ukrainian: Лівадійський палац)

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Crimea is at the center left of this map 





Our basic understanding of the dynamics surrounding Ukraine, Russia and the Crimea are, if you watch the media, somewhere between the capitals of "slim" and "none".  The issues go back 2000 years and not two weeks.  Unlike McCain's "go to war option", Graham's "it is about Syria and the line in the sand", and Palin's "I warned you this would happen", the roots here are ancient.

Yalta Conference - Livadia Palace (in the Crimea) 1945
The Crimea is also Russia's "warm water port".  That is a big deal historically and practically.  Ukraine is in flux and Russia saw the threat. This is a battleground "historic".  To reduce it to Obama's weakness in foreign policy or Putin the Thug, is just perpetuating the ignorance.  Crimea is about 2:1 Russian speaking and history. Putin learned a lot about the West from our reactions to the run up to WWII - if you remember the outbreak in Poland and the annexation of Czechoslovakia had all to do with the supposed "treat" to German citizens and securing land that was, supposedly, predominantly and culturally German.  

If you remember Reagan invading Grenada some 30 years ago, it was to "protect" American medical students there.  Reagan stuck it out and ignored criticism from almost all the international community. Reagan saw there would be little "blowback" so he stuck it out.  Putin has learned that there will be no military intervention in impossible areas of the work so off he went. It is an age old gambit; a make believe threat, disputed and long history, followed by intervention and occupation.  Putin simply played to history.  We've done it, all powers have done it.

It doesn't make it right but it is what it is. The McCains and Grahams of the world don't get it. Palin can't see it from her porch and the pundits' sense of history dates back to last weekend.