Here are a few of my notes about the Ukraine, and why I think Russia is done invading nations for now.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are all proper members of NATO, EU and the Euro. That means direct engagement with the U.S. and all NATO forces. That’s a bold gamble. A Loss could be catastrophic to the Russian government. The EU and US represent a 33 trillion GDP vs Russia and its 2.4 trillion. Bad math. If Russia moves on someone else I can’t imagine its west, gotta be south. Kazakhstan is tribal with 70% of 17 mil being Muslim. That could draw jihadis. No one likes jihadis. And is the gateway to the “Stans” more Muslims, more jihadis. Belarus could be easy but they only have 3\4 of a million Russians. Crimea lended itself with geography, having a perfect bottleneck in the north.

Maybe I’m overthinking Crimea. Maybe this is just personal payback to Kiev for shaming Putin during the Olympics?