The Crimea: It's Not East Germany After World War II

Seizing Assets in Crimea, From Shipyard to Film Studio from the New York Times
"Since Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula 10 months ago, more than $1 billion in real estate and other assets have been stripped from their former owners, according to estimates from the owners and lawyers. The assets include banks, hotels, shipyards, farms, gas stations, the major bakery, a vital dairy and even the storied lots of Yalta Film Studio, which 50 years ago made this now shabby seaside resort the Hollywood of the Soviet Union. Property seizures on such a sweeping scale have not occurred since the Russian Revolution, owners said."
The Russians are being SOOO stupid about this.  Even if they do get away with it in the Crimea, the Ukraine and other neighbors are taking notes and either stiffening their resolve or looking for jump ship.  You can already see that other former Soviet republics that are part of Putin's "co-prosperity" zone, a gerry-rigged Eurasian alternative to the EU, are trying to cut loose from the zombie-like Russian economy, hoping that the rigor mortis that is and will beset Russia doesn't kill their economies as well.  Just as critically, Putin's despoiling of the Crimea will stiffen the backs of Ukrainian authorities and their European allies even as Putin is desperately seeking ways to weaken the former and divide the latter in their application of sanctions.  Putin would have been much wiser to throw money and resources at the Crimea -- rather than giving it Stalin's post-World War II East Germany treatment.  The more one sees Putin's behavior, the more it seems that this guy is like emerging from some 1930s-era time capsule.  I have no doubt that Putin is one of the more cunning figures on the world stage right now -- but I also think he is deeply disconnected from modern realities.  As he tries to muddle through the coming economic disaster that is heading Russia's way, look for him to embrace "solutions" drawn from a 1930s-era bag of tricks.  Result: a thoroughly unleavened neo-fascist dictatorship the likes of which we haven't seen in Europe in a long time, gulags and all.  We can only hope that he can keep from using Russia's still substantial stockpile of nuclear weapons -- or (more likely) that that stockpile has degraded to such an extent that it is virtually unusable. -- Nuggetsman