Also the disasters in the Middle East, with Libya and Egypt, basically told the rest of the world that everything this administration touches turns to crap.
“Also the disasters in the Middle East, with Libya and Egypt,”
Putin wasn’t happy about being lied to by Obama about Libya.
When Obama threatened to do the same to Syria, Putin put a few ships on the line and said “NYET!”. Obama panicked and backed down.
Then the angry Obama and his drones saw destabilizing Ukraine as a way to “get at” Putin strategically, and now that is back-firing as well.
Now, that incompetence and foreign policy ideology is handing Putin opportunities to settle old scores, on a silver platter.