Obama “After my election I have more flexibility.” Russian leader “…I stand with you.”

Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility. Obama leans forward and looks Medvedev in eye, and says lowly; “yeah?” Russian leader Medvedev responds immediately while intently looking Obama in eyes: “I understand.   I will transmit this information to Vladimir, and I stand with you.” Now watch the interchange…

Crimea River

The Russia/Ukraine “uncontested arrival” is not just a Putin/Obama confrontation. It is a test of the West’s willingness to stop territorial expansion by nation-states hungering for a little taste of their own Manifest Destiny. It is hard to make an argument that other than fulfillment of the Budapest Memorandum that the West has a strategic…