If there's one thing that both America and Russia know well, it's that war is a costly endeavor. Back in the Reagan-80s, we propped up the Taliban as the USSR tried to annex Afghanistan. Between the cost of that war and the faltering Soviet economy, everything collapsed and the USSR retreated back home to try and solve their own internal problems.
The U.S. felt that same pinch when we tried to colonalize Iraq. As the dollar figure on the weekly Ask A Vet blogs here on FourFreedomsBlog attest, we poured over 1.5 trillion dollars into the bottomless pit of Mideast war. We too have mostly left the area after a financial crisis that started in the fall of 2008, and recurs every time Congress can't decide whether to even fund the government.
It's only been about 8 months since Putin got shirtless on his horse and rode westward, annexing Crimea and making the move on Ukraine. At that time, Russia was flush with funds, and their economy was humming along. A funny thing happened on the way to Kiev, however. The price of oil started dropping... and dropping... and dropping... to the point now where gas is almost to $2.00/gal again. The problem for Russia is that their economy is heavily reliant on oil exports. As the price of oil drops, so does the value of Russia.
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