Meanwhile, In Crimea...

Seems ol' Vlad here doesn't buy the idea of standing down too much ahead of the "referendum" at the end of next week for Crimea to "join" the guys pointing all the very large weapons at them.

Or else.

 Russian forces tightened their grip on Crimea on Sunday despite a U.S. warning to Moscow that annexing the southern Ukrainian region would close the door to diplomacy in a tense East-West standoff.

Street violence flared in Sevastopol, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, when pro-Russian activists and Cossacks beat and kicked a group of Ukrainians at a meeting.

Russian forces' seizure of the Black Sea peninsula has been bloodless but tensions are mounting following the decision by pro-Russian groups that have taken over the regional parliament to make Crimea part of Russia.

The operation to seize Crimea began within days of Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich's flight from the country last month. Yanukovich was toppled after three months of demonstrations against a decision to spurn a free trade deal with the European Union for closer ties with Russia.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk will visit Washington this week for talks, a White House official said.

 So things get real on March 15th, when the "referendum" is scheduled.  Of course the vote will be overwhelmingly to join Mother Russia.  Then this all becomes about "the Russian minority in Crimea needing protection from the West."

It's been relatively bloodless so far.  That could change any second...and I'm not sure if there's anything we can do to stop Putin at this point, anyway.