As you know, mmoffitt, I am largely (not entirely) in sympathy with your reservations here, but—perhaps because I was inoculated by the Cuban brouhaha of 1962—I am not disposed to duck and cover just yet. Putin's a gambler, and Putin despises the rest of the world (much of which, not least the USSA, is of course reasonably to be despised), but I've seen no indication these past fifteen years that he's suicidal.

in solidarity,