calling the ouster of ukraine s president a military coup saying the people should be able to choose their future on what he called a level playing field. he added no need to use military force in crimea for now, but he does reserve the option to do so. even so, the u.s. ended all or suspended military relations with the kremlin and suspending trade talks and congress is drafting own sanctions. initial efforts that 6,000 troops in the peninsula ballooned to 16,000 and all intents and purposes the troops control that area. ukraine s navy sang together in defiance and their ships are blocked. russia ordered the crews reportedly to surrender or to be boarded. they are concerned not just in crimea but in the east where protests have turned deadly. 11 cities have seen pro russian protests and in some participants have stormed buildings there. little appetite in the u.s. or europe to get involved militarily at this point. a growing rift over what posture the united states should take.
there are russian speaking individuals in the baltic region as well. the other thing is recognize that vladimir putin does not want a democracy on his borders. borders. that would be a very bad example for from his point of view to be set for the russian people. senator, what do you suspect the world reaction would be, and what would your reaction be if it becomes apparent, if it becomes a reality that russia is going to keep crimea? i think that s a reality now. mike, i think it s a reality now and it s not going to change, but we should gauge vladimir putin and his ambitions for the restoration of the russian empire in what he is, not what we want him to be. the president said in his debate with mitt romney that the cold war was over 20 years ago. maybe in the president s eyes, but certainly not in vladimir
of eastern europe that were admitted to nato and i think expansion. you need the hard power behind the soft power. in that respect they had sort of a deal with ukraine and georgia and not a solid security guarantee. turns out security guarantees matter a lot till in this 21st century world. jeffrey, if, in fact, sanctions are symbolic and putin is going to do what he wants to do here and if he decides he wants to take crimea he will take it and what stops him from going forward there and moving elsewhere where he says russians are threatened by governments? would he take another step beyond crimea? yes. i don t see there is nothing in the response of the united states or europe or anyone else has suggested to him that anyone would stop him from rolling forward. and he just has to calculate. a short-term economic damage there could be some economic damage obviously, but russia is not iran and is not quite as susceptible to sanctions. there is that.
disadvantaged children of color in new york city so good for cuomo. we will talk about that issue in a moment. first, no sign of agreement or easing over russian s invasion of crimea. moments ago, russian president vladimir putin spoke to reporters calling the ouster of ukraine s president a military coup and saying the people should be able to choose their future on what he called a level playing field. he added no need to use military force in crimea for now, but he does reserve the option to do so. even so, the u.s. ended all military relations with the kremlin and suspending trade talks and congress is drafting own sanctions. initial efforts that 6,000 troops in the peninsula ballooned to 16,000 and all intents and purposes the troops control the area. ukraine s navy sang together in defiance and their ships are blocked. russia ordered the crews surrender or be stormed.
conversation earlier with bill kristol who is with us here still. we were talking about when this began, when this problem really began. the first bad signal was sent to putin in 2008, was it not, when george w. bush didn t move after he went into georgia? something i strongly felt very strongly about that we didn t do enough. i think that s very clear and in 2008, the debate with barack obama, i said, watch crimea, because i know that vladimir putin will never give up, that he believes even though the president and john kerry believe this is not east/west, this is not the cold war but exactly what putin has treated it at and why there is has been a fundamental misreading of vladimir putin the intentions and things he will do. there is no doubt that he will not give up in crimea because of