[Aktungbby]

SKYBIRD: Moscow would still control these places then - but it would need to pay for it, and a high price it would be, additionally to the sanctions.

Precisely! Like the proverbial monkey's fist, Putin is trying to reconstruct the Soviet past and can't afford the rubles to do it-The Crimea, for example, costs more to maintain than it earns. The first rule of any conflict of acquisition is: it must pay for itself...and that ain't happenin'. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/the-high-price-of-crimea/497763.html The old Russian bear ain't fattened up enough to hibernate this winter..The true cost of Putin's land grab: "the first legislative measures for integrating Crimea into the Russian system will cost the state budget almost $1.5 billion alone. In addition, plans call for granting Crimea at least 80 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) in annual subsidies. That figures includes payments to offset the peninsula's budget deficit as well as social benefits for Crimean residents. What's more, that figure could rise to as much as 150 billion rubles ($4.5 billion) in the near future. Russia might also have to spend another $5 billion soon for construction and repairs to the peninsula's dilapidated infrastructure. In recent years, Crimea was only about 35 percent financially self-sufficient and depended on the rest of Ukraine for assistance, although Kiev never fully fulfilled its financial obligations to Crimea given the sad state of Ukraine's economy."