re: #126 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

This is where I have to chime in and remind people to stop talking about Putin in terms of a New Cold War and compare Russia with the old USSR: they have a different set of priorities, namely consolidating power within the borders of the old Russian Empire.
They are much less concerned with the rest of Eastern Europe and the old Soviet Bloc.

I find it a terrible error to try to describe or interpret his actions in terms that have not applied since the 1990’s.

I don’t really know what Putin’s motivations are. It’s entirely plausible that you are right. It’s also within the realm of possibility that he sees the rightful expanse of the Russian Empire to be the furthest reaches of the old Soviet Bloc (he was, after all, a KGB man in his younger days). I still do not trust him, nor do I trust Trump to do the right thing.