Where the hell were the honourable and noble peace keepers? Seriously, no payed this attention until Putin said that he will put an end to the deaths to Russian citizens in Ukraine. ASA he said that the 'hur-dur RASHA IZ WEARY BAAD' media showed up (as ussual) and naturally started bashing everything.
Am I being biased? Not really. I realise that all of this is politics - which means that everyone is lying and the people will never know the truth.
Remember a similar situation with Syria just a few months ago? Syria isnt even a neibhoruing country with the USA, yet your beloved Mr. President thought that he has the full right to send forces there. Yeah, don't you like how now its pretty much an SSDD sort of situation?
Politics... whatever.
I don't really recall much violence against ethnic Russians in Ukraine during the protests, since they were largely concentrated in the West while the Russians lived in the East.
Nothing has happened to warrant the deployment of 15,000 troops to Crimea and demands for the surrender of Ukrainian forces there. What protests were occurring could have been dealt with by Crimean police forces with assistance from the Ukrainian and Russian troops already stationed there.