Transatlantic Relations program Senior Fellow Adrian Karatnycky writes in the Washington Post on Russia’s interference in Ukraine:
The outcome of Vladimir Putin’s aggression in the Crimean Peninsula is not yet settled, but one thing is clear: He will have few indigenous allies, should he attempt to occupy and split away Ukraine’s Russian-speaking regions. Instead of stirring pro-Russian sentiments, the actions of his military have advanced national unity among Ukrainian citizens and have led the country’s new leaders to moderate their actions.
Immediately after the collapse of Viktor Yanukovych’s regime, marauding groups of far-right vigilantes threatened local governments and legislators, primarily in central and western Ukraine. In Kiev, a triumphalist post-Yanukovych majority in parliament pressed forward with revolutionary justice, releasing not only jailed political prisoners such as Yulia Tymoshenko but also a range of dodgy ultra-right activists who had been convicted of various criminal charges.