Watching Putin teleconferencing with Biden.

[Beastly Boy]

16. What you are describing is Putin's wet dream.

That is to say if everything goes Putin's way, that might happen. But Putin learned a hard lesson in Georgia. He failed to subdue it, and had to settle for an unstable Georgia rather than Georgia the Russian satellite.

If Putin were to take a large chunk of Ukraine and Transdnistria and annex it to Russia, it has a good chance of backfiring. Along with additional territories, he would get millions of newly minted Russian subjects who oppose his rule. As it is, his popularity in Russia proper is not stable enough to make such reckless maneuver that would jeopardize his hold on power. And that doesn't even take the West's reaction into account. I doubt Putin will risk losing the presidency over Ukraine.

Russia us fairly weak, both militarily and economically, and building an empire is just out of its reach. My guess is that Putin is bluffing in order to get the West's commitment not to admit Ukraine into NATO. And I believe I saw a small sign of Putin getting nervous even over that.