Putin at the moment holds all the cards, the Duma has ratified his actions, his troops are in situ, control of Sevastopol naval base and the airspace over the country and his 'nuclear' option of turning western Europe's gas off. It may not be winter but you still need gas everyday and what could the west do to stop him, absolutely nothing.
NATO does not have enough ground troops and supporting arms of tanks artillery helicopters and material. Not enough SEAD/DEAD, tankers transports C4 and C4int close air support and air superiority aircraft. A very long logistics chain and lack of stocks. Involvement in that s**thole Afghanistan, Mali and the CAR continue to require forces time and money.
He has a superiority of men and space to manoeuvre, remember the last two to take on Russia and what happened to them. Maybe the old lessons are about to be re-learnt that numbers have a quality all of there own. What's the use of 100 Brimstones hitting their targets when your opposition has another 100 and more and you have exhausted your stocks.
Are the politicians willing to risk poking the Russian bear sat in his big dark cave, or have in the words of Yamamoto merely 'woken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve'.
If this does go horribly wrong, politicians who started this in the frontline or field hospitals please to see the consequences of their actions or decisions and the effects on other peoples sons and daughters.
Peace dividend, my a**e, just an excuse for politicians to grandstand and misuse my hard earned taxes.