Ukraine (closed; covers till August 2014)

[TheCurmudgeon]

Playing favorites with the Tatars in Crimea may keep Tatars all over Russia from become the next group of terrorists in Russia. Too bad Putin doesn't really have similar options in Dagestan and Chechnya. Of course today's other disgruntled ethnicities in Crimea may become the terrorists of tomorrow, as you note indirectly.

Ahhhhh, but that is Putin's greatest weakness. He is favoring the Russkies over the Russian citizens. At other times he is favoring Tatars over Russkies. If we were smart we would be exploiting this in our rhetoric. But we are not, because we are a democracy, and democracies don't believe in ethnic difference, only ethnic diversity ... and so we will miss our greatest opportunity to divide Russia and weaken Putin.