[jjsheridan5]

Right now Putin is backpedaling (US and Russia ministers end Paris talks), so clearly the intended invasion of East Ukraine was a miscalculation on his part. He may still regroup and invade, but he already lost the momentum.

Nonsense. It is ridiculous how much people fall for. Putin never wanted to get bogged down in occupying territory. Everything he has said indicates he learned the mistakes made by the Soviet Union, one of which is that territory won in the short run is very costly in the long run. He always wanted a divided Ukraine, too internally divided to veer to the West, and fully dependent on the East. The rest was just for show, and to scare the easily rattled. He now has the chessboard how he wants it, so that he can "back down" and get everything he wanted in the first place.

I don't see how your link supports the notion that he is "backpedaling" (it doesn't). But even if he appears to be backpedaling, it is because he is in a position to negotiate a truce that grants him what he has wanted all along -- the Crimea, land access, and a politically divided Ukraine.

This has been obvious from the beginning.

[annalex]

Putin never wanted to get bogged down in occupying territory

Then why is he occupying Crimea?

I don't see how your link supports the notion that he is "backpedaling"

Mr Lavrov has categorically denied any plans for an invasion.

what he has wanted all along -- the Crimea, land access, and a politically divided Ukraine.

Unless he invades continental Ukraine he gets no land access to Crimea. I agree that his best game now is leaving Crimea and negotiating a federal Ukraine, but troops massed up at the border indicate that the plan was to invade and something did not work out for him. He probably expected to foment more pro-Soviet unrest, and did not get enough.

[Qiviut]

He [Putin] always wanted a divided Ukraine ......

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As evidenced by Lavrov just saying ‘Ukraine can’t function as a “unified state” and should be a loose federation of regions that choose their own economic model, language and religion.’