Dorin, thank you for your response.

Yes, I am aware that for many years the Russians and Putin had no problem with Ukraine and had no problem with Crimea being part of Ukraine. They had even negotiated several agreements in good faith with Ukraine to accommodate joint use of the naval base at Sevastopol, and so on.

All that changed in 2014 when the U.S. engineered the coup that installed a right wing Nazi regime hand picked by the US. S. and hell bent on accession to both the EU and NATO.

I notice that the 3 Putin interviews you reference were all PRE-COUP.

Face it, mate: when the U.S. succeeded in violently overthrowing the duly elected Yanukovych government, that changed EVERYTHING.

The Budapest Memorandum states that the USA, Russia, and UK will "respect the Independence and Sovereignty

and the existing borders of Ukraine".

But it also states that the parties will "refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine".

One could easily argue (and I do) that the USA violated the Memorandum when it engineered a violent overthrow of the Ukrainian government and then proceeded to install a government of its own choosing (as we know from the Victoria Nuland tapes and other material).

Organising, funding, arming and executing a coup d'état is certainly NOT "respecting the Independence and Sovereignty" of Ukraine, nor is it "respecting the political independence" of Ukraine.