Two good posts from Andrew Stuttaford at NRO’s Corner. First, the ominous appearance of “little green men,” the unofficial Russian troops who took Crimea, in various places in eastern Ukraine.

One data point in a pattern:

Men in camouflage, armed with machine guns, have been seen at the entrance to the town of Slovyansk, Donetsk region, where armed men seized the building of the local police department early on April 12, the OstroV online newspaper has reported.

Then, from the Baltics, an account of a music festival with an undercurrent of dread.

In stark contrast to that sonic beauty is the reaction yours truly elicits at the festival after-party, a few hours on. Chatting to a chirpy young restaurant manageress (there’s a food offshoot too, TMW Tastes), I slightly flippantly mention the Lithuanian chap’s prophecy about the imminent Russian invasion, as if passing on a bit of juicy celebrity gossip. And she starts to cry. Such things really shouldn’t be taken lightly.

UPDATE: Stuttaford adds another post on public opinion in eastern Ukraine.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.