The geo -political ignorance is profound .
Visiting Russia regularly might help redress much of that , but reading Simplicius and Rolo Slavskiy regularly-- as well as MrPs history summaries , will act as a reasonable substitute for wannabe pundits .
Right Winger is alone in his private universe but interestingly and unwittingly is almost our in-house mirror reflection of his hero, as both old men stumble and bumble .
Mr Putin is a few universes apart from Joe and the Winger and knows how unnecessary old fashioned land grabs are in these days where space and general cyber attack potential are the geo-political currency , allied to longer term influencing based on real net extra profit .Not from debt based on imaginary money .
Bluntly, you do not snatch Latvia , say , unless it is worth huge net extra financial profit and does not upset apple carts which cannot then be repaired . You simply corrupt those that must be corrupted and also make them economically beholden .
Somewhat like the US is presently-- but to Russia and China , not Latvia .
