united states and nato to russia's security proposals or demands, depending which way you look at them. russia calls them proposals. and then they can keep talking. from russia's perspective, it's nato and the united states increasing the tensions by the talk of deploying 8,500 or the possibility of deploying 8,500 u.s. troops to bolster nato's eastern allies. so, you know, this is a situation at the moment where from the kremlin's perspective, they are just going to sit tight and continue their military build-up and wait for the other side to back down. >> this is a situation where every move matters. we're all watching very closely. thank you, nic robertson, sam kiley for your reporting. joining us is max boot, a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations and columnist for "the washington post." max, you have a new op-ed in "the post" arguing the u.s. can't afford to leave ukraine and europe at putin's mercy. i think some americans are wondering, but how does this impact my life?