My father was born in Moscow in 1907. Was a distant relative of the Czar. Of the four books of the czar's family, my dad's line is in #3. Yet he managed to get away just before the communist revolution, and graduate MIT at the top of his class. His eventual security clearance helped me to get
mine after I got my army commission. I know what I know about that part of the world from talks with my late dad and his ummmmm "friends" who used to drop by the house frequently during the Cuban missile crisis.
Somebody else on this thread said that Putin is incompetent and that Russia is now paying for it. I don't think so. I think he's a ruthless, shrewd and calculating guy with a definite agenda that is right on track.