Crimea will become part of Russia. No amount of howling at the moon will change this fait accompli. Those who declare the referendum illegal are exactly the same powers that bombed Serbia for 78 days in 1999, including a direct hit that killed three reporters in the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. They occupied Kosovo and in 2008 declared it independent from Serbia, Russia's last ally in Europe.

Crimea's act to leave Ukraine is justified by the fact that those powers have repeated their feat and engineered an unconstitutional coup in Kiev deposing a democratically elected president, a putsch spearheaded by neo-Nazi storm troopers with guns and firebombs. And the new leader of the interim government, Arseny Yatseniuk, was handpicked by Victoria Nuland, U.S. assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs. Yatseniuk was recently an honored visitor received by Obama in the White House, and has hyped "unprecedented support" for Ukraine's military, offered by Obama.

Western -- U.S. and EU -- officialdom and media desperately try to cover up or down play the role of the neo-Fascist Svoboda party in the interim government. But there is no denying that they, and the neo-Nazi Right Sector, hold at least eight important cabinet positions, including the deputy prime minister, and key security posts. And Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh, the firebomb expert, intends to run for president!

With violence-prone extremists in the interim government, it does not bode well for that government's relations with eastern parts of the country. There have already been two deaths in clashes between the pro-Russian population and supporters of the interim government in Donetsk. A YouTube video seemed to suggest that Kiev deployed Black Water mercenaries in Donetsk. Russia has not ruled out using military force to protect the Russian speakers, who may be in danger.

Why then would Washington and Brussels work with, or at least condone, the neo-fascist and neo-Nazi thugs?

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to Jimmy Carter, provided an answer in his 1977 book "Grand Chessboard." He talked about the strategic importance of Ukraine to the West: "if Moscow regains control over Ukraine, with its 52 million people and major resources as well as access to the Black Sea, Russia automatically regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia. In short Ukraine plays the role of critically important geopolitical pivot.

Brzezinski was instrumental in the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan against the Soviet Red Army. And it was he who first compared Putin to Hitler. He was immediately followed by Hillary Clinton, and then John McCain, who supported all war, who cheered the Maidan Square protestors on the street, and is now blaming his fellow Republicans in Congress for?holding up aid to Kiev.

The root cause of the current crisis is Washington's relentless strategic encirclement of Russia and Russia's efforts to break out of that encirclement. The United States wants Ukraine in the West's orbit; not in Russia's.

What will happen next?

Even Charles Krauthammer does not believe military action is an option. He suggests three steps: 1. Reassure NATO -- arrange joint military maneuvers among members; revive missile defense agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic cancelled by Obama. 2. Deter further Russian incursion into Ukraine: extend Black Sea maneuvers; give Kiev weapons and send NATO trainers and advisors.3. Reverse the annexation of Crimea. But the steps must be diplomatic and economic: the expulsion of Russia from the G8, imposing much broader sanctions and restoring U.S. defense spending cuts.

Most of these points are exactly what the United States and the EU are planning to do.

Are we seeing a new Cold War? Russia says it does not want an adversarial relationship with the West.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.