Ah, the hypocrisy of both America and Russia

First rule of politics: basically, everyone is a hypocrite.

Under international law, does a breakaway territory have the right to declare independence from a sovereign state?

The United States said yes. Russia said no.

Say what?

That was the argument they offered in 2009 when Kosovo broke away from Serbia.

Except now that Crimea is trying to break away from Ukraine, both the US and Russia have made a complete 180, to take the exact opposite positions they took in 2009!

This reminds me of the "states' rights" argument in the USA, in which both liberals and conservatives wrap a flag around "states' rights" when the federal government does something they oppose, when in fact virtually nobody actually gives a crap about the principle of states rights per se. People just want what they want, and will champion either the states or the feds depending on which one happens to fall on the right side of their desires or beliefs at the time. As Sen. J. William Fulbright once said of the famous states' rights champion, Sen. Strom Thurmond (I'm paraphrasing), "He'd be the main opponent of states' rights if he lived in Massachusetts."