Trying to read the mind of Russian President Vladimir Putin is an iffy proposition. So it becomes very difficult to decipher what message Putin is sending by constantly testing US and our ally's response to nearly daily incursions by Russian warplanes. Surely, there is a military aspect to the provocations. But a gigantic game of chess is being played out on 3 continents, and so far, it looks like Putin is 3 moves ahead. Washington Times: “What’s going on is a radical escalation of aggressive Russian muscle flexing and posturing designed to demonstrate that Russia is no longer a defeated power of the Cold War era,” says Ariel Cohen, who heads the Center for Energy, National Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington. “The more we retreat, the more we are encouraging Russia to behave in a more aggressive way,” Mr. Cohen said. “We need to be engaging more deeply with our Central Asian...(Read Full Post)