Maybe I am impressionable, but I think the execution is masterful, and if the plan involved taking control of all Crimea overnight with unidentified troops to confuse everyone, then the planning itself is genius.

Maybe everyone was expecting Russia to roll into Crimea shooting and waving the Russian flag. They didn't expect them to sneak in and disable the Ukrainian troops stationed there in their sleep, so to speak.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman