Putin’s objectives involve far more than just playing games with Obama. He is seriously committed to restoring Russia back to a great power with empire like status and influence. And he see’s a window of opportunity over the next two years to significantly advance his agenda. He will not let this opportunity go to waste IMO.
Obama is pathetically weak, has no respect abroad, and he detests the use of military force. In fact he is doing a pretty good job of degrading our military capabilities and politicizing the armed forces. None of this is lost on Putin.
How far would Putin push him? It may not take on the form of a direct challenge but there are many other ways to “squeeze” your adversary into untenable positions. The next two years are going to be dicey IMO. Putin has a grandiose vision and momentum seems to be on his side for now. So he will continue probing for further weakness. What is worrisome is that he might just turn up the dial if he senses the opportunity knowing that we have nothing but a community organizer as the Commander-in-Chief.
Weakness invites aggression. Always has, always will.
“Obama is pathetically weak. . .”
How can you say such a thing when we can all see obozo is a physically intimidating iron-man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6i0Z0hCIzo