There is more than a little irony watching the impudent Russians claim that they are trying to stop “American imperialism”…. Putin and the Russians remind me of the kid who was good at kickball, but when the classmates moved on to playing basketball… and he couldn’t dribble, he felt left out. Thus, he stole the basketball and threatened to kick it over the fence where the big dog lived unless everyone came back to play kickball.
The Russians are no longer a super power. In fact, they probably have less strategic importance in the world now than the Chinese and the Indians. They realize that the only way they matter is when they act as an opponent to US foreign policy — whether it is supporting the production of nuclear reactors in Iran or providing missiles to Syria.
I almost forgot that I wrote a posting on this subject more than a year ago… I’m not sure what incentives you can offer Putin to get the Russians to behave like good citizens… Perhaps we offer to make him the manager of the basketball team 🙂