It may come the same way in which Russia stole it on Feb. 27, with a strong military force but little deadly violence, with the tragic exception of Ukrainian soldier Serhiy Kokurin, 37, shot to death during a Russian raid in Simferopol on March 18.

But an even stronger political will is required and the more likely path for restoration of Ukraine’s territory.

Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on the established world order, international law and Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the Kremlin’s Crimean takeover may have given the democratic world an opportunity to push back against autocracies and dictatorships that dominate most of the Soviet Union’s 15 former republics.

But both Ukraine and the West will have to take stronger action than the tepid responses so far. While asset freezes and visa bans that the United States and the European Union have imposed thus far are welcome, along with the boycott of the G8 summit that Putin hosts in Sochi this June, the West is reacting in a pitifully weak manner. The responses are so lackluster as to encourage further Russian bullying and invasions of mainland Ukraine and the tiny Baltic nations.

The West must treat Putin as the rogue outlaw that he is, which means that the British are going to have to disgorge their banks of money from Russian oligarchs, that the French are going to have to cancel military contracts and that Americans will have to stop pretending that Putin’s annexation of Crimea is no threat to them.

While American politicians are nearly unanimous in supporting Kyiv and condemning Moscow, the will to act is lacking. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is right in his assessment of Putin as a bully who must be stopped. Regrettably, U.S. President Barack Obama still doesn’t see the threat to global security that Putin poses.

McCain’s March 14 op-ed in The New York Times is required reading for the right approach. Putin is an “unreconstructed Russian imperialist and K.G.B. apparatchik,” McCain said.

He also wrote correctly of the opportunity to turn the tide of history back in democracy’s favor: “The United States must look beyond Mr. Putin. His regime may appear imposing, but it is rotting inside. His Russia is not a great power on par with America. It is a gas station run by a corrupt, autocratic regime. And eventually, Russians will come for Mr. Putin in the same way and for the same reasons that Ukrainians came for Viktor F. Yanukovych.”

The Putin record is marked by shameless anti-West propaganda, imprisonment of his political opponents, censorship of free speech and murder or the sheltering of alleged murderers. He is suspected of orchestrating terror attacks on his own citizens to justify his brutal suppression of Chechnya. Today, Putin shelters overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych and other top officials of the disgraced regime who allegedly conspired to murder more than 100 of their own citizens during the EuroMaidan Revolution.

In the farcical referendum Putin staged in Crimea on March 16, undoubtedly many ethnic Russian voters voted in favor of leaving Ukraine and joining Russia. But they will soon regret the choice, since millions of Russians live in extreme poverty, have no opportunity to elect their political leaders in fair elections and face restrictions on peaceful protests and free speech. They cannot even begin to challenge any court ruling, imprisonment or arrest for running afoul of the state. But there is hope that the Kremlin’s aggression will speed Putin’s demise by strengthening the democratic opposition within Russia.

Crimeans today face a Kremlin information blockade. The only Ukrainian broadcast media allowed since the Russian takeover are the non-political Tonis TV channel and some radio stations.

The peninsula under Russia is destined to be a criminal gangland and staging area for further Russian military aggression, as long as Putin remains in power.

But Ukraine’s political leaders, including Yanukovych, contributed to the break-up of their nation, using their power to rob the state and leave it weak rather than build it and make it strong. No wonder when it came time to anticipate a Russian attack or even repel it, Ukraine had no military capability or political leadership strong enough to ward it off.

If today’s interim government officials fail to erect meaningful institutions and merely continue down the same path as their predecessors, they are doomed also – along with the rest of the nation – to further dismemberment.

Now is the time for mainland Ukraine to make a clean break from the Soviet past with truly democratic institutions, checks and balances on power and genuine accountability. As long as Russia threatens, visas should be imposed on Russians and borders should be controlled. This will be painful for both economies, but essential in showing Moscow that despite centuries of linguistic, cultural and blood ties, Ukraine wants no part of Russia’s autocratic ways and is striking out on its own.