You get the feeling Putins aims are to get firmly entrenched and then say let's negotiated knowing damn well he is now secure with no interest of budging one inch. I also noticed that Crimea has gas lines that also flow through the Ukraine, so he has in effect taken those fields over too.
I do think Putin has misjudged at least in the mid term, Europe will have had the cold hard truth rammed home that you cannot rely on one countries gas supply, so the liquified gas option, gas from Norway and also Turkey and the Middle East will become major suppliers reducing dependance and cutting Russia's monopoly and hence severely hitting the country revenue stream.
..
Last edited by NutLoose; 10th Mar 2014 at 20:06.