Ukraine

Putin's immediate goal in Ukraine is fairly obvious - create a (real or de facto) breakaway state in the east and chaos in the rest. It's also obvious that this will be accomplished soon, and without the sort of bloodshed or blow-back a full invasion might cause.

But you have to wonder how this benefits Russia in the long run. Having poor, weak states on your borders means having a variety of problems, especially if you've gone out of your way to alienate a good portion of their citizens. And in the meantime, aggression in Ukraine has harmed relations with Europe and the U.S. It may be that Europe remains toothless, credulous and somewhat senile in dealing with Russia and the entire eastern end of the continent; certainly the way many corporate heads have rushed to suck up to Putin make one believe that will be the case. But it's not necessarily a given. A doubling or even tripling of Europe's collective defense budget would have a negligible effect on government balance sheets (they spend a pittance now), but present Russia with serious problems. And if economics is the real measure of power in the 21st century, antagonizing your customers is never a good long-term business strategy.

As far as the U.S. goes, no matter what anyone says, Ukraine will always be way down on the priority list of any administration. You will never see U.S. troops there, absent a much larger conflict. But Russia's actions are Exhibit One for anyone who thinks - correctly - that the defense budget has been cut too far to the bone. And they are argument 4,568,982 for a more realistic foreign policy, and not just in eastern Europe.

The outright and obvious lies Putin's administration has made concerning Ukraine are part of a much broader pattern. Putin's real politik is not doing much good in the rest of the world, but it's hurting Russians the most. You'd think more people would have recognized that by now.