Jinping. we saw putin travel to beijing this week to stand next to xi jinping. i don t think he wants to do anything to sort of change that dynamic that he s got going. but that doesn t leave a lot of time. that s still going to be a number of days, about a week and a half way where we could see some sort of action. whether he s going to follow through on it, nobody really knows. the american intelligence agencies seem very, very certain that he is at least poised to do it, that it s a genuine option for him, that he s not just bluffing. but the ukrainians are telling us that the americans are overstating this, that we are overreacting to this and that we ought to stop inflaming the situation. so it s kind of an odd situation where we re somewhat at odds with the very country we re trying to help protect. in the end, of course, what putin wants, if he does invade, is still the question. he has increased the presence of nato in eastern europe near the russian borders by his actions. so