Putin is invincibly ignorant about $money.
Vladimir acquired his $Billions by chiseling Russia's oligarchs, a relatively standard "protection" racket.
Putin didn't take Crimea because Russia was in desperate need of more acreage.
Putin took Crimea because he thought he could get away with it. AND !
Putin's Cold War KGB training limits Putin's concept of a well defended Russia as borders that expand rather than shrink.
Let's not conflate the there & then with the here & now. Putin is not Khrushchev.
Cold War Kremlin hype was substantially hysterical paranoia.
Reports of Russia's territorial incursions are plausible, consistent.
Russia's shadow fleet ships defying PM's threat and entering UK waters
12 May 2026 Tom Edgington, Joshua Cheethamand Thomas Spencer,BBC Verify
Almost 200 so-called Russian "shadow fleet" vessels have entered UK waters since the prime minister threatened to intercept them nearly seven weeks ago, BBC Verify analysis suggests.
In March, Sir Keir Starmer announced that British armed forces "are now able to board sanctioned vessels that are passing through our waters".
However, BBC Verify has identified 184 UK-sanctioned vessels making 238 journeys through UK waters since then and the government has not publicly stated or offered evidence that any have been boarded.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) say it is "disrupting and deterring" shadow fleet vessels, without providing specific details. One former Royal Navy commander has called the lack of action "pathetic".
BBC Verify analysis of ship-tracking data suggests "shadow fleet" vessels sailed into UK water despite the government threatening to board them.
www.bbc.com
World News
NATO jets shoot down drone over Lithuania and Russian ship fires flares at Danish helicopter
NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, officials said Tuesday, less than a day after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that strikes close to the alliance’s territory would drive the trans-Atlantic organization to increase its support for Kyiv.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, officials said Tuesday, the day after the head of the alliance said
strikes close to its territory would only increase its support for Ukraine in the war against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Military officials in Lithuania, a NATO member, said the incident marked the first time that a drone had been shot down in its airspace. Authorities didn’t comment on the drone’s origin or purpose, saying further investigation was needed, but two senior officials said the device was likely carrying explosives.