Putins strategy has been very obvious for years. He wrote a thesis on it which ripped off some US economics professor paper on the same thing. Basically. He who controls all the energy, makes the rules in this century. He's shaped his entire countries future around this.
This is how Putin believed he could return the USSR to its past glory and reclaim all that they had lost. Remember Putin's speech were he said the collapse of the USSR was the biggest modern catastrophe that had occured in our lifetimes? He truely believes that. Ofcourse, Eastern europe had another opinion, but that's what Putin still believes and now that he has an endless supply of petrol dollars to fund his plans and expand the military, we are starting to see it implemented.
Yes , Albania and Azerbijan on the way but his quest for
lost glory will ultimately end in Israel. He must deliver
Isreal on a silver platter as an offering to his muslim
coalition brothers ...