Putin didn’t learn some basic lessons about American politics in his old job. To his misfortune he was stationed in Dresden, the only city in the DDR with no access to Western TV. He would have learned more about how American’s related to the “Captive Nations” if he had been in Berlin or even better Poland. The most left wing elements in America are those with the least connection to former Soviet dominated territories. The partisans of Obama are Moslems, some Hispanics, Blacks and a very isolated and self absorbed elite. These are communities that share some enemies with Putin, specifically Israel, but basicly they do not care. They are in fact unsophisticated even when they are the wealthy white elite. They do not communicate to Putin how motivated large masses in America are to support nations that Putin threatens. Even groups that may have grievances against each other, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Slovaks etc., are pulling together. These were the base of the old Democratic Party. Putin’s trick of handing out passports and exploiting a local minority can not work a second time. The alarm has already sounded.