I'm afraid he is. Putin perfectly knows that only a few nuclear explosions all over Europe and USA will shake the foundations of the western alliance strong enough to sign a truce on any conditions to avoid any further destruction. As a result, he will keep the former Warsaw Pact countries to the cheers and sigh of relief of the western world that the war nightmare is over.
People in the West seem to suffer from a strange kind of paranoid. They seem to think that before 1990 it was a bad evil empire that threatened the world, while now, it is a democratic Russia which got rid of her gruesome Soviet past, just as if the 70 years of marxist brain washing, all that anti American and anti Western imperial indoctrination of conquering the world suddenly disappeared from millions of brains with no trace? Sorry, no offense intended. This is blindness and gullibility I cannot comprehend.
So, I don't believe any western promises and I'm expecting the worst. Anyway, I still hope the West will wake up in time before the Russian Bear awakes it with a nuclear kick.
I'm sorry to say that but the spirit of Chamberlain seems to be still alive and kicking in the western world.
How are the Poles reacting? Frankly, I’d have their troops poised to move into Western Ukraine if the Russians threaten that region. Poland may have to take the lead, because the US sure won’t do it, at least under this Administration.
Then there is the little matter of Kaliningrad.
I pray it doesn’t come to that.