The American people are not going to war with Russia over Ukraine, full stop.- SENIOR U.S. official. In THE WEsT, the post Yanukovych government in Kiev seemed like heaven on Earth, a place for the birth of democracy; in Moscow, it seemed like hell, an anti-Russian cabal in its own backyard. “Unacceptable” was Putin’s response. He had a plan, and he had every intention of putting it into effect. On February 26, 2014, three days after the Winter Olympics dropped its final curtain, hundreds and then thousands of pro-Russian demonstrators began appearing on the streets of Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, demanding that Crimea become part of Russia. They seemed to come out of nowhere. Within hours, pro-Kiev demonstrators took to the streets, arguing that Crimea remain part of Ukraine. They were ethnic Ukrainians, joined quickly at the hip by Muslim Tartars, who were deeply suspicious of any- thing Russian. Soon emotional clashes erupted between pro-Russian and pro- Kiev mobs—fistfights followed by angry scuffles, each side denouncing the other’s agenda and intent. At the time the clashes attracted little attention in the world’s newsrooms, worth no more than a four-sentence account on one agency wire.