I agree with Pat on this. Russia is just playing the old game of power politics—a game we in the US have forgotten. Look to what the French do—they too are masters of the old game. They will say all sorts of things and still sell an aircraft carrier to Putin’s Russia. In truth—Cremea should never have been given to Ukraine in the first place. Putin understands all the sanctions, Red Lines, UN pronouncements in the world do not trump T-90s and boots on the ground—This has been the rules of history since they were written by Sargon I so long ago in Mesopotamia (By the way Sargon I and his dynasty brought 150 years of peace to the Middle East—not an east feat then or now).