If I had to guess, I’d say Putin will go for broke - he’ll never have a better opportunity. Who is going stop him? Seriously .... who will get in a shooting war with him other than the folks in the countries he’s going to gobble up?
Putin has the big stick and all the good cards in the deck. Europe needs Russia for oil and gas. He’s even got us over the barrel, so to speak .... evidently, we have had to rely on Russian assistance (using a base in their territory) with supply, etc., to Afghanistan after Pakistan got mad about the drones and cut us off. SO ... we need cooperation from Russia while we still have troops in Afghanistan.
Nothing Putin's doing is any surprise to the EU or the USA.....maybe the people but not the Nation Leaders....Putin's made it quite clear what he would do if the Eu/Nato continued to encroach on his area of influence...and they knew this would happen when they went after Ukraine's Government as they did.
Ukraine just wasn't smart enough to see the EU and US was using them from the get go....Putin saw it coming....
.... the guy took back Crimea without a war....all in about three weeks!..Because he knew he could. I doubt he wants Ukraine now.....maybe the east where all the industry is...and which are primarily Russian...Ukraine's too much of a drag on everyone to take under their belt.....they owe Russian alone over 11 Billion just in gas revenues. They stopped paying their bills long ago.
If anything Putin will let the Eu shape Ukraine up at their expense, and make a deal similar to the one he had with them...He already has the Gemstone he wanted for now.
Nothing Putin's doing is any surprise to the EU or the USA.....maybe the people but not the Nation Leaders....Putin's made it quite clear what he would do if the Eu/Nato continued to encroach on his area of influence...and they knew this would happen when they went after Ukraine's Government as they did.
Ukraine just wasn't smart enough to see the EU and US was using them from the get go....Putin saw it coming....
.... the guy took back Crimea without a war....all in about three weeks!..Because he knew he could. I doubt he wants Ukraine now.....maybe the east where all the industry is...and which are primarily Russian...Ukraine's too much of a drag on everyone to take under their belt.....they owe Russian alone over 11 Billion just in gas revenues. They stopped paying their bills long ago.
If anything Putin will let the Eu shape Ukraine up at their expense, and make a deal similar to the one he had with them...He already has the Gemstone he wanted for now.