Obama: Crimea referendum would be illegal

[jakeXT]

23. I think he didn't want to be slow and incompetent like Assad or Yanukowitsch

It's a risky move, he certainly risks a lot with it.

If his intel was correct, he certainly knows through intercepts about people like Nuland or the Estonian foreign minister.

Or the intel was planted, to force him into the move just like the Soviets were dragged into Afghanistan

The Central Intelligence Agency says it was following events closely enough to have outlined scenarios in which upheaval in Ukraine would become so intense that Russia would take military action.

Two national security sources said the CIA had specifically warned policymakers, shortly before the Russian military moved into the Crimean peninsula, that such a move could be imminent.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4613133

So, what was Russian Intel reacting to, you ask?

Well, according to Voice of Russia, hacked emails pointed to a group of Tatar troublemakers, neo-Nazis and others who were allegedly getting assistance from Turkish Intelligence. There were also two incidents where masked men carried out paramilitary-type operations on government buildings in Simferopol in Crimea on February 27 and February 28 which suggested that something big was afoot. (Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin confirmed that the Crimean interior ministry was attacked on Saturday by armed men sent by Kiev in a statement he made before the UN Security Council.) The incidents were captured on tape and can be seen here:

Here’s an excerpt from one of the hacked emails, also from the same post, allegedly between the coup plotters in Kiev and a Tatar leader:

“Everything is going according to the plan. We are ready to proceed with the second part of the play. As agreed earlier last week, my guys together with people from the “Karpatskaya Sech” and UNA-UNSO will arrive wherever is needed and with the necessary weapons. You only need to let us know the addresses of the warehouses in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Feodosia and Yalta, and the time of the meeting…” (The Crimean Anti-Coup Move” Moon of Alabama)

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/04/crimea-river/