This was a response to Thomas L. Friedman's column on Russia and Ukraine:
You know what? Russia is just a pain of a country, unpredictable. high maintenance, forever pulling backward. Churchill gave it too much credit when he said it was "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." Russia's not that interesting.
Now it's going to beat up on poor Ukraine. How courageous. And the U.S. will have to deal with it. NATO. The UN. All during a pandemic.
Russia has no real integrated economy nor plans to create one. It's nothing more than a big service plaza for natural gas. Putin is going to be 70 this year. He's going to go out in a fury, lying, cheating, denying, bullying.
And the Russian people will let it happen.
...
Oh GAWD, my thoughts exactly, History Guy! You know, I was curious about China so I went. Then I became fascinated by China, then, some would say, obsessed. China was endlessly interesting. Russia--no curiosity, didn't interest me. Drab, boring, ugly. Like studying mold.
