“We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.”
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, in his September 11,
2013 New York Times Op/Ed Piece
As quoted today by Roger Cohen in the NYTimes: Putin's Crimean Crime