Cold War-esque

If I haven't posted anything about the Ukranian crisis, it's because I've been riveted by reporting on it elsewhere. Daniel Drezner's superb blog has the best coverage I've encountered. It is now the conventional wisdom that the voting was rigged (though exit polls weren't exactly reliable in another recent election), so with the central controversy resolved, I'm in sit-back-and-watch-what-unfolds mode. It's starting to look like a Cold War proxy fight, with the US, Canada and EU refusing to accept the election results and with Russia firmly behind Yanukovich. Whether or not there's a new election, Drezner worries that one part of the country will be so upset with the eventual result that it might attempt to secede. That can't thrill the Kremlin. And it shouldn't thrill the West either. PS Who knew the Ukraine had a population of 48 million?