Russian President Vladimir Putin has defeated a U.S. plan to deny Russia access to the Black Sea, former White House staffer under the Ronald Reagan administration Paul Craig Roberts said.
“Putin was vigilant enough to realize that the new U.S. puppet government in Ukraine would cancel the lease, thereby denying Russia access to the Black Sea and through it to the Mediterranean Sea,” Roberts wrote on his website.
He noted that the Russian president made the right move by accepting Crimea into Russia after the referendum.
Earlier, New Yorker columnist Dan Caldwell said that the West had an opportunity to prevent a Russian special operation in Ukraine by recognizing Crimea as part of Russia.
Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum held there in March 2014, in which a majority of residents voted in favor of reunification with Russia.