What kind of domestic political environment affects Putin's decisions? Is the Kremlin a shark tank? Is Putin looking over his shoulder? Do domestic political considerations drive Putin to international aggression in order that he will not lose out to some rising star? If we understood this better, maybe behavior such as Putin's and Milosevic's would not be so common.
If a low birth rate threatens to leave ethnic Russians in a minority status in their own country, will acquiring Ukraine help with that? Does Putin anticipate Russia losing constituent territories which have large numbers of non-Russians - perhaps Muslim non-Russians?
2. What criteria determined the price Russia exacted for its gas originally? Was that price purposely low to make the implied threat of using gas pricing as a political weapon into an effective means of control over Ukraine? If Russia's western customers cut back on their purchases of Russia's gas - if they changeover to LNG from the US, will not Russia come out the worse?
3. If the more lasting result is that Western European nations elect more nationalistic leaders who place more stress on hard power, what will Russia have gained?
4. As it stands right now, if Putin succeeds in ingesting Ukraine, exactly where will that leave Putin and leave Russia? How will they be better off than now?
I guess I just wonder what's in it for Putin personally. He does not seem to be a nut case or a megalomaniac.