The parliament of Crimea Thursday voted to secede and join Russia and set a referendum for a public vote on March 16.

Since the Russian parliament approved President Vladimir Putin's request to send troops to Crimea, the US-led West has adopted an aggressive diplomatic push toward Moscow and Putin. The referendum of Crimea this time is a Western way in response to the West's interference.

Putin and his government have denied that they deployed any troops in Crimea and said it was only a plan. Putin has remained quite flexible in his use of diplomatic strategies.

If the result of the referendum is to support Crimea breaking away from Ukraine and joining Russia, which few people doubt, then the West's claims about Russia's invasion will lose ground. Crimea is an autonomous region of the Ukraine. It is seeking to change its political status, and the West cannot make a fuss about it as it does with Russia.

Putin has proved himself a prickly person for Washington and the West to deal with. He is tough and resolute, but also good at diplomatic maneuvering and making breakthroughs. He took Edward Snowden in and reversed the Syrian situation. He irritated Washington, which can do nothing about him.

The Putin-led Russia apparently will resist the eastward drive of Western forces. Western opinion has been harsh on this president. Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Tuesday compared his approaches to Ukraine to actions taken by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. As long as Putin is in office, there's no room for improvement in US-Russia relations.

For many years, the West hasn't encountered a challenger like Putin. Yet it is the West's pressure that contributes to what he is now. Since the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the West has been squeezing Russia's strategic spectrum. Putin has no retreat.

After the Cold War, leaders from small countries who confronted the West have all ended up in tragedy. The West either crushed those countries with military intervention or overthrew the regimes by supporting the opposition. It seems that Putin is becoming the most hated person in the West.

The biggest risk for Putin lies within Russia. His support rate reached 67.8 percent recently, which is not enough to carry out his policy to confront the West. Russian society has been divided over the Ukrainian crisis.

Russia won over the Georgia crisis in 2008. The Ukraine crisis will generate a greater impact than Georgia. If Moscow can control the scale of the crisis, its domestic unity will not be much affected. If the confrontation between Russia and the West always remains sharp, Russia will face more challenges than now.

Till now, the Crimean situation is successfully under the control of Putin. Crimea is almost turned upside down, but the density of conflicts has kept low. It remains to be seen how Putin rivals Western leaders.