I don’t think Putin’s concerned about what the West (US) thinks...moreso the European nations...which EU is not exactly carrying the water for Obama as he hoped.
Putin still has his public supporting him, though outsiders have teams trying to stir the people up. We saw that beginning at the onset of the Revolution and was interesting watching some of them tweet among themselves as they attempted to pull it together to get to Russia.....unsuccessfully more than once. But they are on the ground in Russia now...and have been for some time.
I don’t see the West unifying, if you mean our country....nor do I see EU doing so as they struggle now with all the changing of the guard so to speak...especially after just electing Donald Tusk,... who doesn’t speak a word of either English or French, and he comes from a nation that is not even in the Euro-zone. Yet he’s going to speak concerning their affairs.
Rather like when they put Rumphy up to bat.
Putin is weakening his support domestically, he does not have all the time in the world to play endlessly with the West as you think.
The west is unifying, and now we are moving bases closer to Russia, and increasing our levels of training and cooperation and have new countries looking into joining us, and a whole new waking up to the fact that Russia is on the move again.
Putin better be looking for an end, or an exit strategy, but the good news is, that the West is waking up from it’s complacency since 1991.