There are important differences between Russia's intervention in Crimea and the events unfolding this week in eastern Ukraine that suggest Moscow has adapted its Crimean playbook and may be pursuing a different outcome.
Unlike the Black Sea peninsula, where thousands of Russian troops were already based at ex-Soviet naval facilities leased from Ukraine, there is little clear evidence of Moscow deploying significant forces on the ground in the east of the country.
In eastern towns where armed, pro-Russian rebels have seized public buildings and raised the Russian flag, some gunmen identify themselves to journalists as "Russians" — but that says little about citizenship in Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine.
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