The crisis in the Ukraine was always a confrontation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama. In the opening round, Russia won a huge psychological victory by humiliating America’s NATO alliance as a military paper tiger, annexing the Crimea, and gaining amnesty for their supporters. In the next round, Putin will use diplomacy and economic warfare as tools to strengthen his position. In this war by other means, Obama is the deer in Putin’s headlights.   Russia added 2 million citizens, recovered strategic Black Sea naval bases and gained access to vast offshore deposits of oil and natural gas by annexing the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. The U.S. and its NATO allies are now left with the “booby prize” of having to subsidize 42 million Ukrainians that are $72 billion in debt and overwhelmed by a $27 billion annual cash shortfall.  Unfortunately, it is getting worse. Moscow was Ukraine’s...(Read Full Post)