I think you are on to something. Russia was busy with the Olympics. Good time for someone else to stir up trouble.
I don’t think this is a fight that the United States should get into, but I certainly don’t subscribe to the notion that Putin’s Russia is a great place and that Putin is doing good in the world.
Drawing Obama into a fight with Putin over Ukraine may slow him down from doing harm in other areas like his anti-Israel negotiation policies with the Iranians and Palestinians.