Russia's Upper Council session on whether or not to approve President Vladimir Putin's request to send armed forces to Crimea was akin to traveling back in time, rhetorically speaking.
One Russian legislator said: "Look who came to power now in Ukraine—radicals, nationalists, fascists."
(Read more: Parliament approves troops)
In fact, the word 'fascist' was used several times throughout the debate (though actual debate was limited since the legislators seemed to all be of the same opinion).
Another quoted a Russian poet and signaled that now, "it's time to use weapons, not words."
Though the White House said it was monitoring the situation in Crimea closely, Putin and most Russian officials see Obama as extremely weak.
A Russian business source with deep knowledge of Russia's political, economic, and security situation, who requested anonymity, said morale in the Ukrainian army was low, giving Putin an upper hand.
—By CNBC's Dina Gusovsky. Follow her on Twitter @DinaGusovsky.