Robert Gates pointed out this morning that those like me who saw Putin as wanting to return to the glory days of the Cold War have is wrong; Putin wants the power and influence in his near-abroad without the economic headache of Ukraine's moribund economy.
And while we're on the subject, Robert Gates noted in his book "From the Shadows" that the CIA proposed a series of initiatives aimed at fomenting anti-Soviet sentiment in the USSR's satellite countries, including Ukraine (p91). While he laments that fact that the State Department slowed and watered down the initial proposal, he concludes that: "there was still a significant increase in the quantity of dissident and Western information and literature smuggled into Eastern Europe and the USSR" (p94).
So when Putin claims that the West is interfering and trying to stir up trouble in Ukraine, he may indeed have some basis for that claim. He sees Europe's offer of EU membership as an attempt to drive a wedge between Russia and Ukraine which seems a reasonable assumption; and even if CIA isn't currently fomenting dissent and revolt today, there is historic precedent that given his KGB heritage, may be salient in his calculation.
And in another triumph for self-interested lobbying, Britain is dragging its feet over sanctions (not to mention asset freezing) lest it harm financial interests in the City of London, something of concern to a few wealthy individuals but of relatively little import to the man on the proverbial red omnibus.
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