Russia has been paranoid for several hundred years. That’s why they have always surrounded themselves with buffer states. The Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact arangement was not new. Kerry was stupid to have threatened Putin, given that the U.S. had nothing to back up his statements and the EU has made itself dependent upon Russia for natural gas. No military leverage. No economic leverage. No moral leverage.
Nah, that was a smokescreen. Obama's playing to lose. Remember "more flexibility"? He/Kerry have no intention of crossing Putin, not for real. Everything they do is dumbshow for the liberal "realists" still dreaming of an engaged and managerial Obama.