Robert Gates: “We will begin that first transition, or that first transfer, if you will, in July 2011.”

I think the president is — based on what I read — is getting the sense that, as he put it, that Putin is 'tapping' him along.

I think appearances do matter.

He wants Ukraine, basically, to be a client state of Russia.

I think there is a cost. I think it does provide a basis for radicalization in the region.