[leviliebvin]

100%, our leaders are playing with fire at this point. Their reasoning is also not rational. If you cannot use diplomacy with Putin because he is crazy, then why do you expect Putin to back down when you try to escalate to deescalate?

[badpun]

Escalation is using force, not diplomacy. Force is something that Putin understands very well.

[leviliebvin]

Again, I see no reason why Putin would back down. Instead it reinforces his worldview that the West is the enemy and not interested in any kind of fair balance of power. As for who understands diplomacy, one wonders if the US/EU understand diplomacy. China seems to have no problem dealing with Russia. Somehow the US/EU with their combined might cannot manage it.

[badpun]

He will back down when the war becomes too expensive, economically and politically. It's a war of attrition after all.

As to China, Russia's beefs with China were always marginal (Russian Far East is not a very important part of the country), so no wonder China have no problem dealing with Russia. They have no major points of contention, while sharing a common enemy.

As per the geopolitical game in Europe between the US and Russia, the problem is that Russia wants eastern and central europe to again become their "sphere of influence", without any regard for what those countries want. Those countries know that being in US' sphere of influence means prosperity and peace for them, while being in Russian sphere of influence means poverty, political oppression, corruption, rule of stupidity, and potentially wars (forced to send recruits to help Russia). That's the major problem here - Russia wants to force on a bunch of its neighbors something they never said they wanted. In turn, they go to US for defence against their abusive neighbor. It's not US forcing itself onto Central and Eastern Europe, it's those countries practically begging to be protected (Poland's foreign minister was once recorded saying that "we'll suck America's dick for peanuts as usual", because that's Poland's only play).