WWPD: What Will Putin Do?

With Crimea successfully under Russia's belt the only real question that remains is.... What does Putin want next?  Lets look at some Map Facts to help us figure this out. Below we have two maps of Ukraine info. The first slows the cultural divide while the second shows their political divide. Side by side they are almost equal. If you look at the more recent 2014 election results you will see they were basically identical to that of 2004. Northern and Southern Ukraine seem to be inherently different and a large majority of southern Ukraine identifies with a Russian heritage and/or language.

Early this week Putin's officials made comments about the uneasy of Eastern Ukraine and clearly stated their willingness to help the citizens of Russian heritage to avoid the political upset that was to come. While this almost sounds like a purely humanitarian venture, it is, of course, hard for me to believe in Putin's good intentions ploy. Especially in lieu of the fact that he denied all military action up until the final push in Crimea.

So now, if Crimea is any example, we can safely assume that everything in Blue could potentially be Russia's desire. And why would they want the blue; just look at all the water front property they would claim. Russia has historical been cut off to warm water ports and a land grab like this would increase them a minimum of 50%. This a rough number that only includes the western Russian ports in their southern most regions and does not include the already obtained Crimea at all. Crimea alone has already increased Russia's south western port access significantly.

With all this being said I have to ask myself, "Will Russia ignore the north east bank of the Dnieper River?". I know if I were Putin I probably would not. And I Definitely wouldn't stop with Crimea. At the very least I believe Russia's long term plans for Ukraine include all of the Black Sea ports and much of the eastern river bank. Looking at other Russian borders we can see they have a habit of snatching up both sides of a river. So, while i do not believe Russia truly wants all of the Ukraine, I do think they want 65%.  Chernobyl, with all its nuclear contamination is probably an area they don't really want. But grabbing Chernobyl would be profitable in the long term, especially if they have desire to obtain all of the Dnieper River, even that extending in to Belarus. Below is map i have created to show my prediction of what Putin is after in the Ukraine.

Beware dear Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova! The wolf is a awake and he is on to Peters tricks.