Adolf Hitler blinked when he militarized the Rhineland...
Adolf Hitler blinked when he annexed Austria...
Adolf Hitler blinked when he occupied Czechoslovakia...
It’s good when your adversaries blink.
I think he was blinking because he wasn’t sure if the rest of the world would put a stop to it. Hitler also couldn’t believe that the rest of the world wasn’t doing anything.
Yet now, we know that once he felt he had complete carte blanche to take over whatever else he wanted, he immediately stopping blinking and started murdering Jews and blasting the rest of the East of Europe to pieces before beginning on the West.
Now Putin, for all we know, is in fact blinking since he’s bewildered at how easy this is for him. Chances are we’ll see him trying to revive the old Russian Empire and as usual, we’ll get dragged into it with more of our young people dragged into this and dying to protect us.