Ukraine Update

        So, what's going on in the vicinity of the Don Bass region of eastern Ukraine?   Hmmm.  The better question might be: "What's Mr. Putin, dictator of the largest country in the world, doing now?"  Is he on the verge of ordering more "Little Green Men" into the ongoing conflict?   Or maybe he's going to put up this pretense as he manuevers  on the international scene with his "Sputnik" vaccine and offer some sort of bribe ala Beijing to an African country that has been unable to pony up the necessary rubles to pay the ransom fees asked by the Kremlin?

       When dealing with Russkies, it's important to understand their tired old Czarist/Stalinist games that consist of reactionary attitudes to the West's perception of the Rus culture as generally backward and primitive and hardly ready to assume a significant role around the globe.  Unlike its near neighbor to the south, the Rus can't seem to arrive at a comfortable position relative to the modern world.  At once confused by the harsh light of democracy in action,  the recent past with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in charge, has subjected the citizenry to more paranoia on a mass scale similar to the Stalinist era, now long gone.   What are the goals of the Rus in Ukraine?   Do they need more lebensraum?  Hardly.  As its role as the largest country in the world, Russya hardly needs more acreage to manage.  Siberia alone is enough to give any dictator a headache.   Where is the Pacific Ocean in the mind of the Kremlin?  Out there, somewhere, maybe east.   The Communists in Beijing know precisely where the Pacific Ocean is, and those in Beijing have the Western Pacific region in its 'crosshairs', again.

        Maybe the Kremlin will order the Little green Men to march west again, into the Ukraine abyss.  Then, more sanctions, to be sure.  Maybe the West will finally oust Russya from the international payments system, stifling the economy and the Kremlin's ability to pay its debts...  Or maybe all international flights out of Russya will no longer have landing rights anywhere in the West, excepting Kaliningrad.

      What to do?  mr. Biden in the White House has a lot on his 1st 100 Day list; but he has had a bit of experience with Vlad, and knows the territory, to be sure.

      Keep watching the Don Bass Region.