[motorest]

> The troubles Russia has in the Ukraine seem to indicate vast land grabs belong to the history books.

I don't agree. Russia was successful in it's land grab of Chechnya and Georgia. Russia was convinced it's invasion of Ukraine would be a 3 day cake walk, and reportedly their followup step would be to use their blitzkrieg of Ukraine to annex the Baltic nations and Moldova, and force NATO to abandon both Poland and Romania, thus destroying NATO.

In the meantime, China is preparing to invade Taiwan.

Just because Russia failed miserably in it's invasion of Ukraine that doesn't mean land grabs belong to history books.