...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and Russia pulling Crimea eastward by formally annexing it.
Separate signing ceremonies in Brussels and Moscow illustrated the rapidly diverging paths of Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, which Ukraine insists still belongs to it but which Russia claims as its own. The dispute over the strategically important region has led to perhaps the most serious confrontation between the West and Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
There were a few indications Friday that the penalties imposed on Russia by the United States and Europe were having some of their intended effect. Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...signaled a possible pause in the mutual retaliation between the two sides.
In Brussels, Ukrainian officials sealed a deal deepening political cooperation with the 28-nation European Union. The pact revived an agreement that the EU offered to Ukraine several months ago that then-President Viktor Yanukovich rejected in favor of closer ties with Moscow, a last-minute turnaround that led to months of protests, Yanukovich's ouster and Russia's incursion into Crimea.