Wretchard, I think you fundamentally underestimate Putin and do not understand the game he is playing.

As I’ve blogged, Putin is playing out the plot from “Yojimbo,” “Red Harvest” (the Dashiell Hammett novel) and “Last Man Standing.”

Putin’s goal, like a “24″ heavy, is to push the US and Iran into war, over control of the Gulf, possibly with Iran having and using (through deniable proxies like AQ and/or Hezbollah) nukes. It’s why Putin is helping Iran with nukes.

Then, unlike the Continental Op, Putin won’t clean up the town. He’ll run it. NATO (which is just the US) committed to fighting Iran will allow Putin to roll right over Poland, up and into Germany if he wants. Which will then be forced to come to terms for Putin’s oil and gas prices. Putin has no Communist Ideology. He doesn’t care about ruling the world.

He just wants to get his piece of every action. Think a smart Tony Soprano with nuclear weapons who wants to control and get paid for all the oil/gas going into Western Europe. That’s his play. It’s probably required to pay off his thugs more than an alternative leader.

He’s not backing down. The US will be forced to, since it can’t fight all over at once. Particularly with a constantly downsized Navy and defeatist Democratic Party wanting utopian schemes for energy and waging war against the middle class. The US fighting in Pakistan, Iran, and other places in and around the Gulf leaves Moscow a free hand in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Did I mention Putin’s scheme to have Russians move out of cities to villages? Spread out? Where they are relatively invulnerable to nukes (unlike highly urbanized America, Europe, Japan, and China)? Russia can well live in a nuclear proliferated world is Putin’s gamble, that’s why he is pushing it along. America, mostly can’t.