"Despite all the tough talk from the European Union and the Obama administration about repercussions for Putin’s action in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Putin is winning in both of those arenas. Crimea is now a province of Russia, and the unrest in Ukraine has created a conception of “NovoRossiya,” or “new Russia.” Putin himself has used it to refer to those areas, in public, and it was definitely not a slip up.Putin was conveying a message, and crazy as it seems, he is definitely thinking big picture. If you put aside for a moment the idea that Russia’s economic woes will dictate policy, the path forward for Putin becomes clear. He has above 80 percent support in recent polling, so clearly, the Russian people aren’t holding him responsible for their financial woes.
In fact, they blame the West. Putin’s propaganda, often laughed off in this country as silly and ham-fisted, is not meant for us. It is meant for the Russian people – and it has largely worked."
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