He sure does look paranoid and cornered. Oh wait, that's Obama with Netanyahu.
Wow, this writer is totally ignorant of geopolitics.
The error the writer makes is in assuming that what is visible really is how things are. If Putin was dethroned tomorrow, it would make no difference, as the problem is the hidden soviet structures that are in charge in Russia and are infecting the countries of the world.
Putin, even before the eeevil U.S. missile shield, was aiding and abetting every communist/leftist organization on the planet, even paying agents of disinformation who imagined Alex-Jones type conspiracy theories in Spanish speaking news papers. (I’m referring to one of the “spies” busted awhile back; she was ignored, as the focus was on the hot red head at the time. The propagandist got a new job at the Moscow Times, and Alex Jones parrots her views.)
Russia is not our friend, and Putin is not merely reacting to the eeevil Westerners who don’t want to be his friend. He is pursuing long term Soviet goals aimed at, ultimately, uniting east and west under communist terms, and this may conclude with a nuclear exchange at some point, with us on the bad end of it.
He sure does look paranoid and cornered. Oh wait, that's Obama with Netanyahu.
I like Russia more than the EU. We need to post more hit pieces on the EU.
Paranoid people think other people are paranoid.
Remember the Charge of the Light Brigade? It was because Russia wanted Crimea, and lost it in the Crimean War of 1853-1856, against an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia.
Officially their excuse at the time was that they wanted to protect the Russia Orthodox Christians in Crimea from the Catholics and Muslims. Though in practical terms, the reason is that Crimea offers Russia a warm water port for its navy.
This matters so much to Russia that when the Soviet Union was falling apart, they insisted on a 50 year lease on the port in exchange for peacefully allowing Ukraine to leave; but even in their decrepit state, Russia would have been willing to fight Ukraine for Crimea.
The most recent problem was Ukraine’s overtures to Europe, as that could have effectively neutered Russia’s navy in Crimea. But with the horrific H1N1 influenza that devastated and terrified Ukraine, they foolishly threw out their pro-western government and voted in a pro-Russian government.
Russia was all sweetness and light to Ukraine with a pro-Russian government, until it was so obnoxious that it was recently overthrown. And Russia so counted on Ukraine being friendly, and even becoming a close ally, that its invasion of Crimea represents “sour grapes”.