Putin also has no appetite for a war with the West. It would be a mess, but he would lose. The Russians are playing poker with a wimp.
Don’t think for a minute he wants his country ripped up any more than we want ours torn up. At some point in this there will be an eye ball to eye ball stare down. It may not be the Ukraine, but somewhere along the line of separation between the East and the West he is going to overstep.
The thug isn’t going to be satisfied enslaving part of the Ukraine.
Putin believes he has only until 2016 to accomplish whatever he can.