The Jerusalem Post piece by the same title is chilling in its realistic applications.

This throwback to the heyday of the Soviet Union is more than symbolic. Historical analogies are never perfect, but our sense of déjà vu was acute as we watched Moscow’s Soviet-style move to reassert its domination of the USSR’s former fief.

Moscow perceives a threat to its strategic interests from a small regional actor. It prods its neighboring clients to commit such provocations that the adversary is drawn into military action that “legitimizes” a massive, direct intervention to “defend the victims of aggression.”

Vladimir Putin has proved to be a master spy and has shrewdly kept his true intentions from the world. President George W. Bush is famous to have said he “looked into Putin’s soul,” believing what has turned out to be the exact opposite. While commanding his own country with the iron fist of a Joseph Stalin, he’s co-opted the global design of Leonid Breznev

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