Vladimir Putin and the Mystery Plane

Vladimir Putin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In case you haven't noticed, the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine is now part of Russia.

The reason you may not have noticed is all the attention being paid to a plane that flew to parts unknown, which was more than two weeks ago.

Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, and was supposed to have landed in Beijing with 239 passengers--mostly Chinese--aboard.  It never got there.

What happened to the plane has been the subject of endless speculation, one that conspiracy theorists will likely be debating for years to come.  Why was the plane's power turned off in mid-flight?  Was there a mechanical failure?  Was this supposed to be a hijacking or a terrorist plot?  Were the pilots or the crew involved?  And just where the heck did it end up?

Some officials are now saying that, after days of suspect information, that there was some debris off the coast of western Australia that may have been plane wreckage.  Or maybe not.  It was enough for the Malaysian government to declare that all the passengers on board are dead.  Unless Australia has its own version of the Bermuda Triangle.

So while TV networks (we're looking at you, CNN) have been using aviation panels and toy airplanes--seriously--to make sense of Flight 370, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have taken advantage of the distraction by making the biggest European land grab since the end of the Cold War.

Ukraine is a mess right now, with pro-Western demonstrators driving out its President Viktor Yanukovych. who wanted to take the country into a Russian rather than a European direction.  Then Russian troops began appearing in Crimea, invading airports and the parliament.  Then came the elections in which a majority voted to join Russia, a vote the West considered illegal.  Then Putin made it official when he announced the annexation.

The United States and its European allies retaliated (sort of) with economic sanctions and kicking Russia out of the G-8 summit, which has been named the G-7 Summit and moved from Sochi to Brussels.  Russia responded by barring American politicians such as Senators John McCain and Harry Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner from visiting the country.

Some experts believe that none of this will deter Putin from getting what he wants, such as being 'invited' to take over the eastern half of Ukraine.  There are still too many economic and political necessities between the U.S., Western Europe and Russia to sacrifice.  Just like Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, Crimea is not worth risking a nuclear confrontation.

While ships from several nations scour the southern Indian Ocean for any sign of a plane and a flight recorder that may or may not ever be found, Russia is awakening from its post-Soviet dormancy to reassert its influence on the world with lasting consequences.  Outside of the families of the victims, this real-life episode of "Lost" will end soon enough, and we'll all be wondering what really happened while we were looking away.