sarkis,
My expectation is that Putin and the Kremlin gang sat down and actually read Clark Clifford’s “NSC 68″ that followed George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” (later amended and published as “Sources of Soviet Conduct”) which set US policy at the start of the Cold War. Unfortunately while every American in the field of foreign relations or National Security studies probably read it in school few seem to remember it.

In addition he has probably studied strategic theory and seen how the critical regions that were considered essential for dominence in a system of competing powers have changed from the coal regions of the mid 20th century. Putin is not stupid, he may be many things but stupid is not one of them. He wants to control the oil and he wants to use that control to dominate his neighbors and expand his power. We cannot allow him to do this because he sees his goals as zero sum against our security. Therefore we must work to seperate him from access to those resource regions he seeks to dominate.