It would seem, that with the latest peace talks Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande had with Vladimir Putin, the peace talks don't seem to be going anywhere. When Angela Merkel met Barack Obama in Washington, Merkel stated that she thought military action would solve nothing and probably make the situation in Ukraine worse. Obama for his part, was considering sending arms to the under pressure government in Kiev if peace talks broke down, but now it seems that Obama is either dithering again as he seems to be doing over Syria when threatening to attack the Assad regime or he's waiting to see how things in Ukraine payout, including supposed peace plans.
No doubt about it, love him or loathe him, Putin is a rare breed amongst leaders in 2015. He doesn't care what the world thinks about him, he just gets on it with it, whether it be his clandestine actions in Kiev including seizing the Crimea peninsula or his anti-gay laws, he just does it.
When you compare Obama, Cameron, Merkel and Hollande, who can often seem weak and lacking metal in the face of threats, Putin puts them all to shame with his nonsense actions - I'm not agreeing with Putin here, but simply pointing out the shortcomings in our own western leaders or so it seems.
Sanctions imposed by the United States are obviously hurting the Russian economy and the rouble has certainly taken a hit.
Ordinary Russians must be finding their standard of living increasingly difficult as sanctions begin to bite but, never the less, it seems the Russian populace are behind their leader 100 percent, which is more than you can say for David Cameron as he faces up to May's general election.
What Putin is doing is playing a very dangerous game with high stakes over his actions in Ukraine and his bombers skirting the outskirts of British airspace.
However, he seems to know what he is doing with his gamblings with the west: knowing the west will do all it can to avoid a military conflict with Russia as such as a conflict could go nuclear, particularly if the war wasn't going Putin's way. Russia, unlike other countries the west has faced before, has nukes and that makes a hell of a difference in the scheme of things.
A while ago Prince Charles compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler and perhaps he may be right, one thing for sure, the situation with Russia is at a dangerous level and the longer it goes on, the more unpredictable it becomes.
