NEW YORK TIMES: …The main goal from the beginning has been to create the conditions so that Western structures — above all NATO — would not widen their range to include Ukraine,” said Sergei A. Karaganov, dean of the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs and an occasional Kremlin consultant. “That has been achieved.”
“Russia is now looking for an excuse to cool down the crisis and to restore some relationship with the West,” while leaving Ukraine weak, he said. “It will be unified one way or another — a weak state with a crumbling economy — that is inevitable.”
The situation remains volatile, however. With Russian-backed separatists vowing to make a last stand in Donetsk and Luhansk, Moscow could still end up in a military conflict… (more)
