“And so history is repeating itself. Putin’s Sochi Games will forever be remembered as a prelude to naked aggression in Crimea, and his regime, like Brezhnev’s in its time, has revealed itself for the international outlaw that it is. And yet, even with Crimea under his belt and a current U.S. president of similar fecklessness to Mr. Carter, Putin has failed to achieve his real objectives in Ukraine: to incorporate it into a new Russian Empire and, if that fails, to prevent it from becoming a democratic, European state and therefore a direct threat to his rule.”

– Alex Alexiev