THEM AND US

"It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things."(TP)

Since beginning of the conflict in Crimea it was always like this – THEM and US. ‘THEM’ were Russians and Ukrainians, some silly rebels, democratic rights of Russians and drawing parallels with Scots who also want their independence from UK.

US, of course, was the Western world. And, like UK intelligence suggested to Cameron, it's not worth starting World War Three over Ukraine. You see, it’s THEM, not US.

It all changed on 17 July, when flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, travelling over the conflict-hit region, crashed, hit by a messile. Soon suspicions started to grow that plane was shoot down by so called pro-Russian militants, i.e. „seperatists”.
A total of 283 passengers, including 80 children, and 15 crew members perished - 193 Dutch nationals (including one with dual US nationality), 43 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians and 10 Britons (including one with dual South African citizenship), 4 Germans, 4 Belgians, 3 Filipinos, one Canadian and one New Zealander on board.
Suddenly the whole world changed. It wasn’t THEM anymore, it was US. It wasn’t about pro-Russians killing Ukrainians and otherwise, it’s about THEM killing US. And finally it’s worth paying attention! Cynical? Hell, yes! Real politics? Sadly, yes.
Rebels, hitting the Western passenger plane, did the worst for themselves.  estern authorities now are coming out with all sorts of evidence about Russia’s direct support to so called rebels in Ukraine. Evidence of serious weapons being shifted out from Russia to rebels suddenly are out on the table. It’s harder and harder for Putin to deny Russia’s involvement in the conflict.   
What will happen next? I don’t know. Mr. Putin has fanned Russian sentiment in Ukraine and back at home, and now is under pressure from his own people inside Russia to do more to help rebels. Crimea was a quick and easy bite, and Russia loves winners. Backing out of conflict right now would mean a complete personal defeat for Putin. Declaring openly a war on Ukraine? Even crazier possibility. So let’s see.