While the rest of the world had dreamed of peace Putin contemplated war, biding his time like an old Czar waiting for the opportunity.
He is wrong on several counts about Western intentions, but a individual who has only one tune playing in his mind.
"The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has hit back at accusations that he has effectively invaded Ukraine, accusing Kiev's forces of behaving like Nazis in the conflict in the east and ominously threatening to take his standoff with the west into the disputed Arctic."