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With a "referendum" in Crimea coming up Sunday that will almost certainly give Russian mini-czar Putin cover to annex that region of Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies are expected to ratchet up sanctions and to isolate the Russian Federation. Whether that will spur Putin to back off, or as is more likely, to engage in retaliation, remains to be seen. But it's a reminder of how little the leaders of Russia have learned in the years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
(cartoons: top, Jack Ohman, bottom, Clay Bennett, via Gocomics.com)
