Let's see...NATO and US Warships in the Black Sea (Russia views the Black Se as their own private swimming pool), Poland Signs missile shield agreement, Ukraine and Georgia assured membership in NATO, nations all over the world condemming the Russians, and the list will grow. This is what Putin and his ilk are reaping from their agression...and well they should.
I get a real uneasy feeling about how many nukes the Russkies kept. Did they cheat on the agreements in the 1990s? I recall working on a proposal for some logistic support for the nuke destruction. The Russkies were very paranoid and secretive. The book, “Soviet Strategy for Nuclear War” is in my library. The Russians always had a chess players attitude towards nuclear war. They thought that winning was a mathematical algorithm of strategy and numbers. I just hope Putin is not stupid as well as evil.
I don’t think we’re seeing the whole board here. Putin is playing a larger game. I think its about World War and Putin looks to be the king pin of the new Axis against the West. He knows he will lose the war but he calculates it will end in a stand off ... with Russia regaining a lion’s share of its old empire. Perhaps even more.