Via AFP:
Fielding questions during a live phone-in last month, President Vladimir Putin described regions of eastern and southern Ukraine as a "New Russia" that could one day return to Moscow's control.
Now that vision is taking shape.
Russia's widely condemned annexation of Crimea in March and Putin's increasing rhetoric about protecting Russian-speakers abroad had raised fears the Kremlin was gearing up to seize new territory.
Those worries were allayed when Russian troops failed to pour over the border after separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk said weekend referendums...
