I have zero sympathy for Putin and his pathetic games, but I do have some sympathy for the position of the ethnic Russians in the Crimea. Look at what the Ukrainian parliament did as one of their first acts after Yanukovych fled - overturning a law voted two years ago that allowed Russian to be used as an official language on local and regional levels. As symbolic acts go, it doesn't get much clearer than that - then what did they expect the reaction would be in places like Sebastopol where 90% of the population speaks Russian? Yanukovych's regime was bad, but it remains to be seen what the new one will be like, part of the coalition against him does consist of aggressively nationalistic and anti-Russian elements, and such open signs of hostility towards the large Russophonic minority are not a good sign.

I think you and I both have a pretty good idea of how powerful language questions can be in politics, considering our nationalities. We should not blithely assume that those people in the Crimea are fans of Putin and of what he stands for - but with the anti-Russian sentiments among large parts of the revolutionary Ukrainians, it's understandable that they'll take any help they are offered. The West needs to stand up to Putin, yes, but it also needs to show strong support for the rights of the Russophonic population of Ukraine.