Yes you are right TJ. But Putin is tactically taking advantage of a grand opportunity to grow Russian global influence, because US leadership is terribly weak at the this moment in time, and the US military is bogged down in ME wars that benefit no American.
The episode about a year ago when Putin wrote a NY Times op-ed, as much as I did not like to admit Putin was correct. Senator DeMint’s response probably gave Putin to stay up even later every night figuring out a way to screw up America. Obama vs Putin is like Kaepernick vs Seahawks. Putin one-ups our golfer-in-chief at every juncture. It seems he’s got our number and wins every time.