[CCIP]

Originally Posted by August

The Berlin Airlift for instance? By your theory we should just have let the whole city fall to the Russians, after all Berlin is a lot closer to Russia than it is to the US right?

See, if this was the analogy, I would be 100% behind this - but I don't see how this applies. The Berlin Airlift wasn't about supplying weapons to a third party, last I checked. In fact other than supplying the small and militarily-irrelevant Western garrison in Berlin that was agreed on with the Russians, those planes took virtually no military supplies into Berlin. What they brought instead was civil supplies, propping up the infrastructure and economy, bolstering morale, and allowing Berlin to survive independently while keeping a fair standard of living - even in the worst of circumstances. For all the temptation that there would've been to react militarily to the Russians' illegal actions in blocking the land corridors, the West didn't cave to it and instead pursued a route that was previously agreed on with the Russians, and though it first it made them ticked, ultimately it ended up de-escalating the situation by proving that Berlin would survive - not as a fortress, but as a civil entity. If there were an actual armed war over Berlin, it would be over in a day. Lesson in de-escalation to be learned there perhaps.

That's the kremlin's narrative which you believe in. Fortunately it has nothing to do with the reality.
Technically speaking Maidan had nothing to do with removing Yanukovich which was a purely democratic decision.
btw, you forgot to mention how Yanukovich wanted to suppress the protesters with the help of russian thugs. Was that even legal?

So let me get this straight: low approval ratings + claims by political opponents = constitutional mandate to overthrow government?

Let's see, Obama and Hollande have low ratings. You're not going to have trouble finding people (especially on the internet) who claim that Obama plans to send all American gun owners to FEMA death camps, or that Hollande works for the MOSSAD. Impeachment time!

I don't have any problem with the Maidan as a political protest, nor do I have an issue with the Orange side reflecting a real political need in the Ukraine. That's not the problem here - the problem is a lack of respect for constitutional principles. It was a political tantrum, and if we consider that praiseworthy, I worry about where Western constitutional democracy is heading.