And then, there is the "Gas Princess" Yulia Tymoshenko, jailed for corruption. She has been released at the demand of the United States and the EU, and who took the stage at the Maidan Square to hail the victory of the glorious "revolution." And her pal Oleksandr Turchinov has been named acting president and prime minister by the parliament in the wake of the ouster of Victor Yanukovych. Turchinov is the deputy chairman of the "Fatherland Party" and a long-time ally of Tymoshenko.

This is not to say that none of the protestors are sincere. But America's hand is too obvious in the whole affair. The U.S. government has poured millions of dollars into the protest movement. Its chief diplomat for European affairs, Victoria Nuland, who accused the EU of being too weak and ineffective and who openly tried to name the new cabinet in her phone talk with U.S. ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, even talked about the West needing to "midwife this thing." (See my earlier article "Victoria Nuland's gaffe")

"It is no propriety not to reciprocate," as the Chinese saying goes. So in response to the U.S. "midwifery" of the coup, Moscow accused the West of sponsoring a takeover of the country by "terrorists" and "extremists," and Sergei Glazyev, an advisor to President Putin, warned that Russia could intervene to maintain the security of its ex-Soviet neighbor. Clinton had already deprived Russia of its European ally Serbia by bombing Kosovo.

Ukraine is so vital to Russian security that Putin cannot afford to lose the historic land of the Cossacks to the west. This is especially true of Crimea, as Sevastapol has hosted the Russian navy for centuries. Western officials have been keen to integrate Ukraine into NATO, forcing Russia to move its naval infrastructure down shore to Novorossylsk, some five hours away by car from Sochi, the site of the Winter Olympics.

Thousands have taken to the streets of Sevastapol in the Crimea, calling for the Crimea to secede and potentially be returned to Russian control.

The drama of Ukraine is far from over. We'll see what happens next.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.shenbo75.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.