Are you feeling smug about Russia's current economic problems and the cratering of the ruble? It is difficult to avoid a certain schadenfreude at this point.
A bracing antidote to those feelings is this article by John Schindler of the XX Committee. His organization's name is an obvious homage to John Cecil Masterman's counterintelligence operations for Britain during WW II. Incidentally, the appropriate interpretation of XX is not 20, but rather "double cross."
Schindler takes a very dim view of Russian intentions and a grudgingly admiring view of their covert offensive capabilities. He expects continued trouble-making on the part of the Russian bear in 2015, especially in Estonia.
Like everyone who has been paying attention, Schindler doubts Obama's willingness to defend NATO allies under attack. He points out that sanctions sometime goad a nation to go to war against the sanctioner, as Japan did against the U.S. in 1941.
