The Long Game
*If* an invasion by Russia of Ukraine were to come to pass, is there *anyone* who seriously thinks the USA,UK,EU, NATO, I mean, choose your poison here, would act to defend (i.e. send front line troops?)
There's one glaring omission in the rhetoric about Russian interest(s) in Ukraine.
And that is the port of Odessa.
Nordstream 2 (LNG pipeline between Germany and Russia) will cut out Baltic States, Ukraine included.
We had Georgia/Ossetia annexed. Crimea/Donbas annexed. Belarus? Łukashenko still in power. Oh and now Kazakhstan.
I don't buy into the "Putin wants to reconstruct the Iron Curtain stuff". Arguing against military action against a foreign aggressor in a foreign land, all that I can understand.
"Russia is an Energy Company with a country attached" (sic? John McCain). But Nordstream 2 we will live to regret.