Robert McGarvey

Last week Hilary Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state, compared Russia’s invasion of Crimea to Hitler’s 1938 occupation of the Sudetenland (Western Czechoslovakia) in the run up to the second world war. While making clear she was not comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, Clinton also suggested there were historical “parallels” that we must all keep in mind. The not so subtle message was “those who forget their history are forced to repeat it.”

London’s Financial Times said it best: “If a company that has designed a single successful mobile phone game (“Candy Crush”) can be worth $5 billion, anything can be worth anything, and we live in a world without financial rules.”

On Sunday Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk set the record straight. This is not a local rebellion, not simply an act of aggressive intimidation. Russian troops have invaded the sovereign territory of Ukraine and are rapidly occupying strongholds in the south and east of the country.