I'll take that up. NATO expansion is stopped cold. Both Georgia and the Ukraines will not get NATO membership if only because it would be military suicide to do so. Both Georgia and the Ukraines might be gearing to the West but they will have to satisfy Russia's security concerns.
the 2014 revolution turned Ukraine from a puppet of Putin and a Russian arms factory to Ukrainians literally shooting and killing Russians. for that matter, same thing with Georgia-- it was a Russian puppet as late as 2003 prior to the Rose Revolution. given their respective location on the globe, of course they always have had cause to be worried about the Russians; now a good portion of their populace actively hates the Russians.
IE, there's not going to be a return to puppet status. so much for eastern european hegemony, the cornerstone of Putin's strategy.
Israeli air power is effectively neutralized and Assad's survival is no longer under threat.
in short, "resurgent" Russia is significantly weaker economically (by 20%!) than she was in 2008, has weaker control of her periphery than in 2008, has far more hostile neighbors than she did in 2008, and has a hard US military presence in her backyard. her Ukraine adventure has proved to be a strategic disaster.
Putin's goal for over the last decade was to exert hegemony over eastern europe, weaken NATO resolve, and get the US out of europe. none of that's happened. that's not even treading water, that's a collapse in strategy.
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