Former German chancellor Schmidt criticizes West's Russia policy.

[another_liberal]

11. What would I do?

I would not have overthrown Yanukovich in the first place. I would have honored the truce agreement we, the EU, and most of the protest leaders had reached with him to wait until early national elections could be held and a democratically elected replacement government could have been properly chosen by the Ukrainian people.

That is, of course, no longer exactly possible. What we can do is negotiate with the Russian government for the dismissal of our "interim government" and offer to temporarily reinstate Yanukovich in power, if, in turn, Russia agrees to rescind its annexation of Crimea. A national election (including voters in Crimea) in May or June could then properly decide if President Yanukovich, our interim puppet President or some third party should lead a reunited Ukraine. The question of whether Ukraine would lean East or West could then also be made by the Ukrainians themselves.