"First, you calculated the "correlation of forces," to use a Soviet term, and realized that it was vastly in your favor. Who would fight you? A Ukrainian leadership in chaos? A flimsy Ukrainian army? The EU that could not even bomb Libya without the U.S. Air Force? Barack Obama's America? Then, you assessed political geography correctly. The rule is never to take on a superior enemy like the West on his own turf. You test his mettle on his periphery. The EU is an imposing economic power, but it lacks the will and the wherewithal to project its might. The U.S. has assets galore but no longer the will to act as world power. So you could shrug them off. Next, you factor in geography proper. Globally, the West is far superior to Russia, but regionally, you were the Man. You had the "interior lines," as the great Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz put it; the West was a thousand miles away. And your troops were already in place in Crimea—tanks, planes and all." - Adriano

"You Russians have distilled my wisdom into a pithy phrase: Kto kovo—who dominates whom? [T]his is why you won so handily in Crimea. There is just one problem, Mr. President. A nation's true greatness comes from responsibility. You have just reaffirmed a historic Russian habit: You would rather be the great spoiler and outsider. It is self-isolation, but not at all splendid. Good luck, Vladimir. Yours truly, Niccolo Machiavelli" [aka Josef Joffe, editor of Die Zeit in Hamburg] - Adriano