Ukraine crisis: Crimea airports occupied

[another_liberal]

17. Whoever these guys are, we had better treat them as if they are Russian troops.

Old Russian folk saying suggests that "Once you have the official denial, then you know it's the truth."

RT news has this to say:

'No takeover' at Crimean capital’s airport, ‘self-defense squads’ on nearby patrol.

The head of the Simferopol airport security service, Vladimir Perepelitsa, said that the people now patrolling the territory of the airport are calling themselves “self-defense squads” and their intention is to prevent possible turmoil. “We are constantly in touch with them,” Perepelitsa said, the Crimean information agency reported. “We protect the passengers inside the airport, and they do the same outside. If everything goes as peacefully as it does now, then they will stay here for as long as it takes to provide security.”

Maksim Pastukhov, a correspondent with RT’s documentary channel who is now at the airport, has confirmed that it’s being patrolled by self-defense squads, adding that they in no way are hampering the airport from operating flights according to schedule. "It’s all quiet inside the airport,” he said. “There are much fewer armed people outside than there were in the morning.”

(snip)

According to eyewitnesses, in the middle of the night at least three KamAZ trucks without license plates drove to the airport with about 50 men. At first the group cordoned off the airport’s domestic flights terminal, but then pushed forward.

An airport spokesman, however, rejected reports of a takeover. He said that about 50 armed men arrived at the airport to search for Ukrainian airborne troops. However, after finding out that there were no military personnel present on the tarmac, they apologized and left the territory, Igor Stratilati told Echo of Moscow radio.

http://rt.com/news/crimea-airport-terminal-capture-095/

The fact they are so well and uniformly equipped, and that they arrived in military style vehicles "without license plates," makes me suspicious, not to mention more than a little wary of our provoking them.