Russian cossacks rally near the Ukranian border.<br/> <br />A show of solidarity with ethnic Russians in neighboring Crimea.<br/> <br />We're ready to help, they say, if Crimea wants to rejoin Russia, which gifted the area to Ukraine in the 1950's.<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) COSSACK GENNADY CHERNENKO, SAYING:<br/> <br />"Crimea and eastern Ukraine were all before a part of our cossack territory. If they want to join us we will support and help them."<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) COSSACK VALENTIN GLAZATOV, SAYING:<br/> <br />"Our brotherly people are there, our brothers, Russians, Russian-speaking population, something like three million people."<br/> <br />Russian President Vladimir Putin watched war games on Monday designed to test the combat-readiness of his troops.<br/> <br />His forces have seized control of the Crimean peninsula, where Moscow maintains its Black Sea Fleet, and now threaten to invade Ukraine.<br/> <br />Russia says it needs to protect Russian speakers in Crimea from what it says is a new nationalist
