“For years now, Putin’s calculation has been that the West is strong but lacking in unity and will, allowing a scrappy Russia willing to bend and break the rules of the international order to assert its place as a global player. But the success of this gambit hinged on his capacity to assess what the West would tolerate. By exceeding those limits, he may have delivered a triple blow to himself.” The Atlantic: Putin Finally Went Too Far.

+ “It sends a muscular message from the West to President Vladimir Putin that he can’t attack one Western country without generating a broad response from them all, a Western diplomat told me. But it also signals the potential for a deeper confrontation that could ripple across other global flashpoints where Western and Russian interests compete.” Robin Wright: With Expulsions of Russians, the West—En Masse—Confronts Putin.

+ The unified opposition to Putin comes in response to the (attempted) killing of a former Russian spy on foreign soil. It turns out that’s becoming quite a trend: “The FBI possesses a secret report asserting that Vladimir Putin’s former media czar was beaten to death by hired thugs in Washington, DC — directly contradicting the US government’s official finding that Mikhail Lesin died by accident.” Buzzfeed: Christopher Steele’s Other Report: A Murder In Washington.