President Barack Obama has said for the past week that "there will be costs" if Russia intervenes militarily in the Ukraine. Obama huffs and puffs, and Russian President Vladimir Putin acts. Breaking news reports that Russian parliament has in a unanimous vote granted Putin permission to use the country's military in Ukraine. Already, Russians have taken over two Ukrainian airports, and The Associated Press reported a convoy of nine Russian armored personnel carriers and a truck on a road between Sevastopol and the regional capital, Simferopol. Putin, whom Forbes named the most influential person in the world, and has shown himself repeatedly to be a brilliant tactician, holds the cards yet again. His September op-ed in The New York Times, which urged the American people to oppose a U.S. initiative for military strikes in Syria, was timed perfectly one day after Obama's prime-time televised speech. Putin positioned himself as a man of peace, and protector of their ally Syria. Russia used the Edward Snowden affair to their advantage to make the case that America was a bully, and continue to do so by leaking tapes of Ambassadors talking in Europe. Meanwhile, Snowden enjoys Russian hospitality. Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said, "Putin at this point holds all the high cards — and all we have from the president is rhetoric."
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