"Russian Troops May Invade Ukraine." What To Do?

"Here's lookin' at you kid."

(Hey, Obama! If you can't swim with the sharks, get out of the pool."

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White House: Russian troops may invade Ukraine. "Speaking after Nato's top commander in Europe voiced alarm about the size and preparedness of the Russian troop buildup, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser, Tony Blinken, said President Vladimir Putin may indeed be readying further action....General Philip Breedlove, Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe, said earlier on Sunday that the Russian military force gathered near the Ukrainian border was 'very, very sizeable and very, very ready' and could even pose a threat to Moldova, on the other side of the country. Andriy Deshchytsia, Ukraine's acting foreign minister, said the chances of all-out war between his government and Moscow 'are growing'." Jon Swaine in The Guardian.

Quotable: "Russian President Vladimir Putin will seize even more territory if the United States isn't 'a little bit tougher' on him, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said Sunday. "He goes to bed at night thinking of Peter the Great and he wakes up thinking of Stalin," the Michigan Republican said of Putin on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'" Eric Bradner in Politico.

Long read: Obama's aim to shift foreign policy runs up against old Cold War rival." Scott Wilson in The Washington Post.

ALBRIGHT AND O'BRIEN: A plan of action for addressing Putin's adventurism. "When President Obama and European allies meet next week, they can begin forming a meaningful response to Vladi-mir Putin's adventurism. This new strategy should note that Putin's view of the world is rooted in dangerous fictions. Drawing on this package of fictions, Putin has resorted to military power and propaganda -- his available tools -- and has acted in a place where a majority of the population is Russian and where he thinks manipulating ethnic tensions might work. His lies cannot be allowed to stand. If his doctrine of 'helping' minorities that are not in danger were endorsed, the world would become much more dangerous. Only a firm response has a chance of preventing this scenario from being repeated."Madeleine Albright and Jim O'Brien in The Washington Post.

McMANUS: How would a Republican president respond on Ukraine? "The president's careful response and unwillingness to consider military intervention has met with general support from other Democrats. But Republicans have been sharply critical....The sniping is no surprise given the partisan divide in Washington. But would a Republican in the White House instead of Obama actually plot a different course? That would depend entirely on which Republican we're talking about. The GOP has long been divided on foreign policy, and Ukraine has exposed fault lines that are likely to grow as the Republicans' 2016 nomination contest nears."Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times.

DOUTHAT: Russia without illusions. "Since the end of the Cold War, America's policy toward Russia has been shaped by two dangerous illusions. The first was the conceit that with the right incentives, eyes-to-soul presidential connections and diplomatic reset buttons, Russia could become what we think of, in our cheerfully solipsistic way, as a 'normal country' -- at peace with the basic architecture of an American-led world order, invested in international norms and institutions, content with its borders and focused primarily on its G.D.P....The second illusion was the idea that with the Cold War over, we could treat Russia's near abroad as a Western sphere of influence in the making -- with NATO expanding ever eastward, traditional Russian satellites swinging into our orbit, and Moscow isolated or acquiescent....Now both ideas should be abandoned." Ross Douthat in The New York Times.