Does Putin think America is weak?

[thaiboxerken]

Putin met Obama; enough said.

Yes. I agree that Putin is racist.

 

[MaGZ]

Putin does not think America is weak. He thinks Obama is weak. Putin has long since taken the measure of Obama and knows he's a weak, timid leader.

And I'm not sure that Putin is really doing anything evil here. The majority of Crimeans are Russian. I don't see how it would be so terrible if Crimea seceded from the Ukraine and became a part of Russia.

Agree

 

[MaGZ]

I also sense that PUtin sees that isolationism is making a come back in the US, with it having partisans on both left and right.

I don’t see any isolationism on the Dems side. Any politicians come to mind?

 

[thaiboxerken]

I don’t see any isolationism on the Dems side. Any politicians come to mind?

Not wanting to go to war on a whim is not the same as isolationism.

 

[Unabogie]

Putin does not think America is weak. He thinks Obama is weak. Putin has long since taken the measure of Obama and knows he's a weak, timid leader.

And I'm not sure that Putin is really doing anything evil here. The majority of Crimeans are Russian. I don't see how it would be so terrible if Crimea seceded from the Ukraine and became a part of Russia.

Agreed. Which is why Putin invaded Georgia. He can not only wrestle bears, but he can take measure of future presidents using some sort of manly time vortex.

Wait, we're talking about Putin's invasion of Georgia, right?

 

[Praktik]

I don’t see any isolationism on the Dems side. Any politicians come to mind?

Isolationism is traditionally a conservative political outlook on foreign policy.

Non-neocon or non-hard Wilsonianism on the left is rather more contained within elements that eschew hard power in favour of engagement/foreign aid. But doves on the left rarely advocate for what would be classically called isolationism (they dont shrink from the wider world) - we probably last saw the genuine article in the american political wild in the moments before America decided to join both World Wars.

Hard to find much thats isolationist since the 50s really - but you can find plenty of times where it has been used as an epithet/cat call in modern times, used to castigate parties not enthusiastic enough about the next American foreign adventure.

 

[shuize]

Crimea is going back to Russia. That looks like a done deal. Things could get dicey if Putin tries the same stunt in eastern Ukraine. But as a longer-term strategy, I wouldn't mind seeing America start exporting more of its new-found oil/natural gas to Europe and begin to undercut some of Putin's leverage.