re: #50 wheat-dogghazi

From The Economist, an analysis entitled “Putin’s Inferno.”

Goes on to say the West, meaning the USA and the EU, need to act tough and resist Putin’s attempts to absorb Ukraine into the Russian sphere of influence.

That is a bit of a simplification: as long as the Ukraine is dependent on Russia for energy and trade, and as long as a significant share of its population is of Russian origin, it will be within Russia’s sphere of influence, it is just a matter of how that influence is reflected in its economic and diplomatic policies.