Like far too many Western "experts" Perry is wrong on several counts. There continues to be a misguided belief that Russian weaknesses will translate into Russian failure. In fact, mixed in with the weaknesses are a great many strengths including the near-total neutering of feeble Western sanctions. Not mentioned is the embarrassing fact that Europe is still buying more than $1 billion of oil & gas from Russia per month - so much for sanctions, eh? And creative use of middlemen means that Russia continues to import essential Western supplies like microchips and machine tools.

The hard fact is that only the application of force will defeat Russia, and our "leaders" are too spineless and fearful to authorize this. So Russia will probably, in the end, succeed in turning Ukraine into a puppet state and basically one vast gulag.