[mc32]

It's about striking a balance and it looks like some of Putin's actions were due to his thinking he was "provoked" by Nato expansion into his backyard and his being an authoritarian could not allow himself to look like a supplicant or submissive to Us action in the area so he goes about and dusts things up a bit.

I think Obama and his advisers sorely missed someone like a Condoleezza or a Cohen, etc. people who would give him some good insight into Putin's thinking and why he acts the way he does.

I mean, at the end of the Obama presidency US-Russia relations were hotting up beyond my comfort.