All politics are local: Crimea explained

Konstantin von Eggert, World Affairs (USA)
The state of the collective Russian mind, a blend of imperial bluster, conspiracy theories, and defensiveness, is frequently underappreciated outside of Russia. Most commentators dwell on geopolitical aspects of the recent crisis and talk about it as a preventive counter-move to NATO’s enlargement to Ukraine and Georgia. ... Only if one understands that Russia’s foreign and security policy is primarily a tool to defend the current regime and help it to stay in power with minimum international pressure as long as it wishes.