Russia's Use Of Unmarked Troops In Simferopol, Crimea: Shady, But Not Illegal

"Armed men of uncertain allegiance," the New York Times called them in a dispatch from Simferopol, on February 28: "Their military uniforms bore no insignia and it was not clear who they were or who was commanding them." They were the mysterious figures who surrounded last Friday the main airport in Crimea, the Ukrainian autonomous region at the center of a standoff between Russian and Ukrainian forces that is threatening to escalate into war.