NAH. HE ALSO THINKS LIBERALS ARE ALL THE WEST HAS:  Putin must look at the West and laugh.

My guess is this push will seriously — ultimately — hurt Russia.  And Putin — in a little while — will find out that the west didn’t attend Oxford or Cambridge or Yale or Harvard en masse. And if he gets on our nerves enough, he’ll find how non-effete the rest of us can be.

My guess is he has troubles domestically (Yeah, and? How would you know? Just like in China, it’s a controlled information environment) and this is not so much a show of force, as a ghost dance to distract the populace and try to recover lost glory. If the west can declare war and stomp on us under that excuse, so much the better. The old KGB horror sleeps at night wrapped in dream of conquering those that brought the USSR down. It’s a pipe dream, but it keeps him warm, despite the ice in his veins.