absorb some weapons. so in some sense not waiting is in russia s interest. the problem is the beijing olympics, and they start in just over a week. putin is supposed to be there as the honored guest of xi jinping, and the olympics don t end until february 20th. so it is unlikely, i think, that he overshadows these olympics with invasion. plus, i think russia wants diplomacy to, quote, unquote, be seen to play out. i could be wrong obviously, but that s my sense. then given weather after february 20th, there s only a limited amount of time, roughly a month while the ground is hard enough to do something really large but it doesn t mean he has to do anything large. the word invasion is unfortunate here. i think it is better to think of intervention. an intervention suggests an entire menu of possibilities. the smaller, more focused an intervention is the less time pressure mr. putin will feel. richard, the pentagon went out yesterday to say nato is a