[outofstyle]

Do you think that Putin is really so stupid...

Was Stalin so stupid? This is intimidation. If you cross Putin you die. What is the West going to do about it? Nothing. Putin is not stupid. He is a smart, ruthless dictator.

[uncbob]

If you cross Putin you die. What is the West going to do about it? Nothing.

What did Clinton do about Saddam trying to assassinate Former President Bush ?

[RedStateRocker]

I've said all along- the Russians (the smarter of them, anyway) know Communism sucks; that is not going to stop them from being Russians. They play chess as a national sport, lost 20 million people withing living memory, and regard an enormous empire at the least and world domination generally as their birthright just as much as we do, and have for far longer. Why anyone would ever expect the Russians to not act like Russians is beyond me; Lenin and Stalin were of a same kind with Ivan the Terrible, in a way. Putin is just as convinced that HE should be head of the world's sole superpower as President Bush is.