Originally Posted by
dead_pan
I think the key take aways from this crisis is that NATO has become more unified and likely to spend more bolster its defences, and Europe will look elsewhere for its gas supplies, neither of which are good news for Putin's Russia.
Indeed!
I think it feels a bit like Vlad' is nearing the end of his reign. The medium term consequences of this are all rather unfavourable for Russia. So he has a short Term internal
PR gain but strategically damages Russia's position. I guess he accepts this because his scuccessor(s) will have to deal with it. For the next 2-3 Years it helps internally to secure his position. To me it seems he doesn't look at a longer horizon than the next 2 -3 Years. For whatever reason. Don't know if his Doctors told him something bad or if he feels that the public opinion in Russia started to tilt against him. No idea, what the actual trigger was.