georgia and to ukraine, part of what turned ukraine around from its pro-european drift back to russia was a $15 billion bribe from vladimir putin if the west eu and u.s. want to start matching that kind of money, it may lead them back in the direction most of the population wants, anyway. the options we have, can be punitive but almost nobody believes they are military. i think vladimir putin in the long run doesn t have many military options beyond crimea either. but we have to think about what we can do, not just how we want to look but what the actual options are. and without talking about what we can actually do is less productive than it ought to be. indeed. the other point is from putin s perspective, we ve been meddling but the bottom line, kerry is going to kiev overnight and he s dealing with a very fraktous