After Initial Triumph, Ukraine’s Leaders Face Battle for Credibility

Those efforts culminated in the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, when Russia provoked Georgia into skirmishes that prompted an invasion and the annexation of two Georgian regions with sizable numbers of ethnic Russians, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. That annexation has not been recognized internationally, but what is happening in Crimea seems drawn directly from the same playbook, but faster and with less pretense of responding to an endangered ethnic Russian population, which has been attacked by no one.

.. Russia possesses numerous tools to destabilize the new powers in Ukraine, from financial instruments and customs duties to energy supplies and trade sanctions.

.. By picking sides, by pressing on economic and energy levers, by funding and favoring certain personalities, Russia helped the Orange Revolution fail, because it did not change the system of politics by oligarchy.

Only last Sunday did the acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, and the interim prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, get a first look at Ukraine’s accounts. “They were shocked after having seen the books,” a senior Western diplomat said.

.. On Thursday, Mr. Yatsenyuk told Parliament that loans worth $37 billion had disappeared from Ukraine’s treasury during Mr. Yanukovych’s three-year leadership, and warned that unpopular measures were needed to salvage the economy. He added that as much as $70 billion had been sent out of the country during Mr. Yanukovych’s presidency.