Concerning Russia...

The truth of a bad reality is usually difficult for individuals and for nations to accept that that which is the inevitable,  as being true. However, that which is true and at times inevitably impending, always remains true.

The relationship Russia shares with the free world will sour once again. In spite of the possible hope by many Russian people to live and prosper as respected peers of the free world, unfortunately, their leadership is steering Russia to a path of isolation and to the return of the type of relationship experienced prior to November, 1989.

Under the current form of leadership by Vladimir Putin, Russia seems destined to bread lines again very soon. Worldwide security is headed to a heightened stage. Whether or not these concerns come to past in the next year or within the next five-years, I submit that this is the destiny Vladimir Putin is carving for the Russian Federation. 

Nobody wishes an arms-race, yet it appears inevitable under Russia's Putinism. Russia started its recent meddling in the Baltics, in the Nordics, in the North Atlantic, in Ukraine, in Crimea and elsewhere. Unless Putin ceases and desists from his current path, the responsibility of stopping him must then rests upon others.