Let’s give the Devil his due. Putin had one card, oil, and has played it brilliantly. He has rendered NATO an empty uniform, neutralized and neutered the EU. He will recover the lost territories of the USSR. He will form an Axis of Oil with a Greater Iran, and then pay us back for wrecking his precious Soviet Union. Well played, Esteemed Mr Putin!

But if a nobody in the USA might venture a word of advice, would such a revenge be wise? Your country is great and powerful but very brittle. You need time and lots of it to repair the damage of the last century, particularly in the area of demographics. Meanwhile, your neighbors with whom you have nothing in common except a dislike of America are growing and growing fast. Do you think you can hold on to your pretty oil and gas fields all by yourself? Perhaps you would like being a suburb of Bejing. Wouldn’t an “understanding” with the USA, one based on mutual respect, mutual self interest, and mutual dangers be better? Moscow/Washington could turn the northern hemisphere into a zone of mutual defense, security and prosperity. We can even build that tunnel under the Bering Straights you were talking about. As for Europe, it’ll be our themepark. So whadda say, Vlad? Have we a deal?