Putin Is a Master at Exploiting Western Weakness

The annexation of ukranian crimea was very much driven by putin's political ideas. Putin is convinced that the west understands this, but simply denies russia its legitimate right to protect its geo political interests. Russia has become a key player in syria precisely because of the slowness of other actors. The russian economy is performing very badly, but russia will be able to muddle through for he couple of years, waiting for the oil price to rise.