Russia vows no Ukraine invasion as leaders seek solution

[karynnj]

39. Last I read it is May 25

I think there needs to be some things done first - though it is very hard to say what could legitimately be done. However, the Parliament is the elected representative of the Country. The President was picked by the Parliament as an interim President. You could say he is their Gerry Ford - never elected President (or VP), confirmed by the Senate.

However there are bigger problems with doing nothing until the election. Russia's action of annexing Crimea is the hardest thing to ignore until after May 25. How can you have an election when it is not clear who has the right to vote? If you assume that the Russian action did not occur, you have a strange situation where people the Russians deem as Russians get to vote for the Ukrainian government. ( Tartars and other Crimeans not alligned with Russia have been reported to have fled Crimea - leaving I would assume mostly Russians. )

This is a tricky situation, but the danger of not diplomatically cooling this down is incredibly high. In addition, while the interim leader is intentionally a lame duck, I don't think the Parliament is.

One scary thought:
Just approving the annexation of Crimea is something that many Ukrainians might really not approve of. However, what is the alternative, given the referendum. You could dispute the referendum and demand a new referendum with more choices be taken -- but that opens up a can of worms about allowing referendums in many "states". It is impossible to imagine Russia simply accepting that Crimea is part of Russia - apologizing and going home.