(July 25, 2014 at 11:34 pm)Alice Wrote: It's kind of inspiring to think that Putin might restore Czardom in Russia if given enough timeThat'd be pretty impressive.
The problem for the USA, is that if we're at the forefront of removing Putin, and we're there from the start... other nations are quite likely to see it as the USA going for yet another oil grab (Kuwait, Saudi), and we can't hold a claim in Ukraine if we're at war with a Russia that has annexed Ukraine. It would take a considerable force to meet it, and as the US has a pretty sweet deal in Saudi: it would be ridiculous for them to risk initiating a war that will cost them more than the oil fields of Ukraine are worth.
The flow would slow, sure... but it's still tenable.
It is NOT inspiring to see Putin re-establish the czar system. Totalitarianism either in the form of a czar or stalinistic system will not help Russia and would create more instability throughout the region.
