That’s very much the model Russia has been trying to apply for redrawing borders in places like Crimea and the eastern Ukrainian provinces now, though. It’s been explicitly paralleled on Kosovo, just without any respect for what “the majority of the population voted” is supposed to mean. 
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That’s exactly what respecting the territorial integrity of sovereign states means. If you recognise a state as legitimate, you must recognise its territorial integrity, otherwise you don’t really recognise it at all.
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Right - I think that illustrates the problems with our modern system of nation-states, which, whether we like to admit it or not, is built on some problematic assumptions that came out of the 19th century - that there is a natural set of “nations” that are “self-evidently correct” with boundries that are “natural” rather than historically and politically created. And of course those with political power are going to try and shape those boundaries in a way that benefits them. Whether or not a boundary is accepted depends on those with the power to enforce them (ie, the US, the EU, the UN, Russia, China, etc).
If you’re ignoring the voices of a large portion of the population, then it’s not doing so, is it? Again, why were Serbs more “sovereign” than the Albanians who live in Kosovo? Why should a large portion of the population be forced to live in a state that is hostile to their existence, which was the case with Kosovar Albanians? Are they less entitled to autonomy than Serbs for some reason? 
Does a myth based in the conquest of the Balkans (1389) override the the rights of people who live there right now? Because that was the primary claim used to argue that this was Serb land and that Albanians were “invaders”…
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Like so many things, I think the principle of territorial integrity was a bad one but worked as a check that other powers like Russia and China would accept. I don’t know if Kosovo might have been accepted as a justified exception, but Bush Jr.'s “screw the UN, America is sole superpower and makes its own rules” thing made sure it marked the end of the others caring to be reined in by it too, and I think this is a fairly predictable result. 
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It fits with the image we have of Putin’s Russia, where his principle was “let Papa Putin handle the political stuff, and live your life as if it doesn’t affect you.” Anyone in jail is out of sight, out of mind to most, so they can go about their mundane lives and not notice how things are gradually getting shittier all the time because, hey, it’s Russia, things have always been shitty.
What a fucking depressing country. No wonder they hate Ukraine and the Ukrainians, because they have ambition and dreams.
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Specifically, Putin and the rest of the Kremlin gangsters are terrified of a successful, prosperous, democratic Ukraine that ousted their corrupt pro-Russian thug of a president.
Successful, prosperous, democratic Finland, or the Baltic countries, aren’t a threat because Putin and his lot can always claim they are different: they aren’t Slavs, they have different culture and language and religion, the stuff that works there won’t work in Russia. But Ukraine? It’s so close to Russia, this argument doesn’t fly. If Ukraine can be successful without a bunch of corrupt oligarchs and bloody-handed siloviks in charge, why can’t Russia? If Ukrainians can kick their corrupt rulers out, why can’t Russians? Understandably, the people in Kremlin are mortally afraid of the Russian people getting ideas like this in their heads.
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How long til we start seeing mutinies among these troops? Hopefully Ukraine’s psyops folks are working on it. What might be nifty is drones dropping loads of those tiny phones so well loved by prison inmates for Russians to call the ‘help me surrender and escape’ lines they have.
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I missed this one. There have been so many “unexplained” deaths that the news of new ones are just noise.
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The Russians are worried about the comings and goings at Rostov-on-Don…
Or just Putin paranoia?
The airport appears to be where a lot of traffic from Syria/Israel/Lebanon end up.
Or just fireworks?
Later they tried to reassure the Russians that it was supposedly fireworks, but people immediately denied this information in the comments.
“This is air defense work, you can’t confuse it with any fireworks,” “Yeah, fireworks, you can hear them all over the area,” “It’s just that they don’t believe in a fighter that switches to super sound, and now after the explosions they will fire fireworks from the embankment for cover”, “I’ve lived here for 25 years and I know how fireworks go off on the left bank! This is clearly not them,
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