[Gluteus Maximus]

Putin is both an excellent chess player and a superlative poker player. His actions have cost him very little financially, his popularity at home is at stellar highs, and his domestic power over all Russian levers of power is ever-increasing. Putin knows that Europe is a castrated fat cat that will never stand up to him. He knows that Obama is (take your pick): (1) completely feckless and ineffectual in so far over his head it's ludicrous; (2) a traitor who hates America and American power and influence around the world; (3) subject to his KGB's "kompromat" (truth about his and his family's Communist ties, sexual stuff about his bathhouse escapades no doubt replete with color glossy photos) and is quiescent as only the blackmailed could be; (4) doing as Putin orders because Putin's droppings hundreds of millions of dollars into Barry's Swiss bank account; and (5) all of the above (most likely scenario, IMHO).

Putin is winning. He'll take all of Eastern and Southern Ukraine for the same reason a dog licks its testicles - because he can. As soon as that's over, he'll take (my guess) the Georgian Black Sea province of Adjaria (ethnically different from other Georgians, although related) and maybe more of Georgia, and have his hand on the switch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Europe will not dare to say a peep after that.

Then he'll have a free hand to annex the Russian-speaking parts of the former Soviet Empire, starting (my guess) with Northern Kazakhstan, after that the Baltics.

The only country that could rise to stop him is the United States. But we won't do that for the reasons described above.

So, Putin wins his old Soviet Empire back at the ridiculously low cost of a few half-hearted sanctions.

[ansel12]

NATO isn’t a single country.

[RaveOn]

I’ll believe it when I see it. Too many people here are exhibiting Putin Derangement Syndrome, where they can’t decide if he’s an evil genius or an addled moron. We’ve seen that movie before.

[Tau Food]

Putin is winning. He'll take all of Eastern and Southern Ukraine for the same reason a dog licks its testicles - because he can.

Putin is a loser. His economic policies have been a disaster and now he is screwing up Russia's foreign policy. A competent president would have been able to maintain good relations with the Ukraine.

The guy's a joke and how anyone can admire him is a mystery to me. I suspect some (middle-aged homosexuals) get the hots when he takes off his shirt for them. Maybe they want to lick Putin's testicles, I don't know. Any attraction to Putin seems very strange to me.

They have been showing pre-crash videos of some of the wonderful people who were murdered because of Putin's incompetence. All I can say is that if you think he's some kind of genius, his peculiar genius killed a lot of wonderful, innocent people.

[Rashputin]

Baltics or not he's probably already digesting the governments of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan by moving the Christian minorities in those countries into powerful positions in the government while everyone watches Ukraine and Georgia.

The "Stans" will need help against ISIS types sooner or later and where will they turn? To King Barry?

Just my humble speculation.