What's a Maidan gambit? I've got my chess book out and it's not there. Much like the imaginary CIA in the paranoid schizo thinking that America is behind everything.
Economic sanctions is one of the few things the west did right. Losses to the west has been minimal, hey, Russia is not important. Meanwhile, some Russian big wig (finance minister, I think) gave a figure of $200 billion as their losses for falling oil and sanctions.
My take is we really don’t have an interest there - and a LOT to lose. I don’t worry much about the socialists that run Russia - I worry about the ones that run the USA.
That being said - If you look at everything that is happening - then think for a moment that Mideast money and China money have bought our politicians - it all makes sense. Russia and the mid east are oil exporting competitors. The mideast won the bidding war for the corruptible here. (Looks like the American folks that used to buy our politicians also got out bid).
China buys influence as well - used to be we would see very smart hardworking students from China - now it is the children of the super-rich corrupt government officials. They bought special privileges that honest people from other countries couldn’t afford.
And if you think all we need is a Republican win, sorry - today’s socialist-lite Republicans are to the left of Democrats of the 1980’s - they don’t care a hoot about silly things like free enterprise.