This incident saddens me. The last two decades were a great opportunity for Russia to finally join the West culturally and economically. For the first time in history Ivan had a glimpse at the possibility of some reasonable level of comfort and prosperity.

It almost seemed like it could happen – for a while anyway. I suppose the chance for Putin and his KGB cronies to make a grab at undreamed of personal wealth and power was too much.

Putin has crossed his Rubicon and there is no turning back. I think we could start a clock running on Putin’s time on earth. I don’t know what it would be set at but 10 years seems like a very long time.