takes it seriously. it s a big intelligence community. and there may have been miscommunications here. david, you wrote a column earlier this week which you said that putin had already won. what do you mean by that? well, in effect what he really wanted was crimea. and he s gotten crimea. crimea is a vital strategic importance to first the soviet union now to russia. it helps guarantee their outlet to the meditteranean and black sea. it s of critical vital importance and he has that now. julia, in your latest piece in the new republic i ve been following on twitter all week long. it s been fascinating to read your stuff. you reference a comment ma putin made back in 2008 at a nato summit where he told then president bush that ukraine isn t even a country. we had professor steven cohen on last night and he said the same thing. it s not even a country. obviously a lot of people in kiev take great issue to that. how much is that kind of thinking driving vladimir putin s actions ri