http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/m ... mea-russia

Of course he did. There's no appetite for any sort of war in or within Europe, and especially not when he's controlling the gas. If it turned out in years to come he secretly pushed the Ukranian revolution in it's final stages I wouldn't be surprised. It's not like it's the first time he's made strategic plays.

I'm a little bit surprised the UK didn't give any sort of recognition to the vote given Crimea is semi autonomous. Doesn't that give Spain and Argentina more clout when arguing over the votes on similar issues in Gibraltar and the Falklands?

I don't think Crimea is 'semi-autonomous' in quite the same way. Gibraltar and The Falklands are protectorates (not quite the right phrase but I can't remember what the right one is) whereas I think Crimea is a federated state, more akin to say the way the regions inside Germany have some autonomy. The Spanish government definitely won't be in any hurry to recognise/validate the vote in Crimea, given their history with Catalans.

I heard some statistics over the weekend over the level of 'capital flight' out of Russia. The number sounded ludicrous, something like 80% of the capital generated each year exits the state pretty much immediately and the vast majority gets shipped to places that are British tax havens. If we actually DID decide to impose proper sanctions it would really cause a fair amount of trouble. But I wouldn't hold your breath for Cameron and Osborne to implement them though.

Well, they did have that “We want to join Russia” singing thing sorted out very quickly. No negotiations, they had the vote, signed the documents and job done. You’d think this had all been planned in advance......