OldSalt,

No doubt that Russia’s ambitions have no bounds, but her means certainly do.

I suspect that the invasion of Georgia has taxed her resources more than we think, and this with dedicated internal lines of railroad communication.

However, Ukraine is vulnerable, and close.

The Russian-Ukraine friendship treaty expires in December of this year. The Ukrainian presidential election is in January of 2010. You can bet your butt that Volodya will increase the pressure on his western neighbor.

My linguistic detour was to underscore that almost 40% of Ukraine’s population is uncertain in their national identity. If a plebicite were held today, I guarantee that Crimea would choose anschluss with Mother Russia. The industrial Donbas of Eastern Ukraine would likely vote the same way.

Ukraine is a case for extreme soft power. Somehow those Russians living in Ukraine need to be convinced that they have a better future in a westernized Ukraine than in Putin’s Russia. So far, Kyiv has bungled it.