re: #205 Dark_Falcon

I disagree. Natural gas sales are too important for Russia to risk. Putin would accept the backlash if he had to, and frankly, in Europe the backlash wouldn’t be too bad. Most of Central and Western Europe* relies on Russian natural gas and that places a limit on how much they push back.

*: The exception here is France, which gets most of its power from nuclear energy.

Putin would have to come down pretty hard on Kiev and other parts of Ukraine to get Yanukovych back in power. I don’t see it happening, especially now. The toothpaste is out of the tube, and the president is out of his house…probably too late to get either back in.

And does Putin really want to become an international pariah after spending $50 billion (in Sochi) to make the world think he’s a decent guy?