The Demonstrators in Kiev , ousted the Govt (democratically elwcted ) and put themselves in charge , (with no democratic mandate , they were recognised in an hour by the USA and the UK ,  

Russia beleives that the CIA were funding the dissent in Kiev , by paying the demonstrators , and being so quick to recognise a Govvt , whose first act was to ban the Russian language .

 Putin feared that the USA's attempts to subvert the country , were retalaition for his standing up to them , over Syria , they did not get to bomb Damascus , and the chemical weapons have bene ordelry dismantled , as opposed to another decade long occupation , a'la Iraq

 So he upped the stakes , and secured his Naval Base in the Black Sea (leased to Russia till 2014 )

 I agree with what you say above papko as I don't believe for a moment the "new" government in Kiev is much better than the last one (probably they haven't had time to squirrel away billions yet), especially when they decided to ban the Russian language which fortunately was knocked on the head very quickly by both the US and the EU.   

I think Putin is also very concerned about having Nato troops on the border of Russia and Ukraine. 

There's no getting away from the fact that he has behaved illegally though. He said two weeks ago he did not want to annex Crimea from Ukraine, two weeks later he's signed an agreement to do just that... The Russians aren't the best chess players in the world for nothing...

Maybe I'm missing something but I can't understand why the EU want  such a corrupt run country as the Ukraine as a member unless it's to ensure the gas supplies alone. Germany is very dependent on the Russian/Ukraine pipelines so that's probably why they've been relatively quiet. I notice it's the countries who don't depend on gas supplies that have been the most vocal.

I am very disappointed in President Obama as his first reactions both to Syria and now Ukraine have been immediately to "punish" as opposed to negotiate. He never got off to a good start with Putin and has pulled out of meetings with him when applying diplomatic skills might have narrowed the gap a bit. It's certainly been a test for Kerry. These people never seem to learn from history.  People are fed up with wars.