Quote Originally Posted by Husar
So how would you go about convincing them.
nigga i dont know

Quote Originally Posted by Gilrandir
Correction: ... act with WHAT HE THINKS Russian strategic interests...
Well, it's pretty straightforward as far as establishing buffers goes. Iran wants them too, and China, and Japan, and India, and Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, heck why not bring up Argentina and Chile while we're at it...

The strategic interest you forwarded is opposite to the one Putin has in mind. Anyway, what Putin has been doing for the last two and a half years does anything but getting him closer to a coherent and internally-stable Russia.
Just as the US administration and Ukrainian administrations do not have unlimited practical options for how to approach the situation, neither does Putin. He has the Russian bear by its ears, and he is driving it where he can. Even if we were to imagine him desiring such a thing, he has no way to unilaterally defuse the Syrian and Ukrainian theaters without crippling his own domestic reputation and setting back Russian political ambitions by a decade.

I suggest what he is simply hoping for is to pull off as much bravado as he can before the issues become frozen over a few years, the world loses patience, and a new status quo settles in. That's the single way he can avoid either voting himself out of office or continually escalating aggression until someone needs to call a bluff or the European Union gets distressed enough to temporarily back Russia against American complaints.