Heh, I don’t mind if CPT Charles makes a good point under MY byline too much, y’know.

Putin is thuggin’ it in Georgia, in order to regain control of the Black Sea & eventually the entire Caucasus region ASAP. He knows that eastern Siberia is eventually going to become part of the PRC, and he is anticipating that day by ensuring that the Russian Empire (CIS my fanny) has a definitely viable energy resource to provide to Europe. His plan is politically….very Russian.

The funny thing is, he could’ve gotten the cooperation of Ukraine & Georgia by doing some trade deals, splitting the difference, you know “making the deals”. That’s the way the rest of us in the free World do it, right? Your guys & my guys do lunch, the contracts get arranged, the political seals of approval are applied, we have the press conference & photo ops, life goes on, everybody is happy. But no, Putin, ideological heir to Uncle Joe Stalin, the Czar of the Soviet Empire, gets the Cossacks and the mechanized divisions and the IRBMs and goes in swinging. After all, the Bear of the East doesn’t need to negotiate or make deals, right? “We will bury you!” Nice of him to reinforce the lesson to our post-Cold War generations that the Russian people are good, but they toil for a government that is wicked, and dedicated to holding onto power at all costs.