Robert Gates: “The goal in September is not whether the violence has been significantly reduced or stability has been brought, and it…”

He's going to insist on occupying all four of the eastern provinces of the Donbas.

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

Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire.

Such an attack would make a nuclear-armed Iran inevitable.