The 2020 Expo was given to Dubai. This old video show Putin speaking English and his pitch that Russia should be recognized. Obama reignited the Cold War rather than give Russia the respect it was demanding. It is all about respect and recognition we often call national pride. When things go wrong economically, it is national pride that leads to war.

Ukraine should have simply been divided along ethic lines divided by language and let the East join Russia since they saw themselves as Russian. Instead of spending all this money on war, there should have been an orderly buy-out of those who wanted to move sides. That would have ended the crisis. This view of borders that were drawn by old politics is rather absurd and in the end, will be redrawn once again.