First round of sanctions announced. Visa restrictions , who said sanctions will not be implemented

Russian stocks have crashed by 11% of its value today alone due to threat of sanctions from U.S. People are dumping stocks as they fear retaliation over Ukraine crisis. The value of the drop is about 58,000,000,000 USD. This is more than what was spent in organizing Sochi olympics. Imagine the losses if sanctions are initiated.
Putin must back down and beg for forgiveness.

I said right here the best way to tame putin is through the Russians themselves. I think Kasin heard me

http://www.foxnews.com/p...nia/%E2%80%9D%20target=

http://www.foxnews.com/o...hepard-smith/index.html

my observations is that USA has had a long-term game plan for Russia since the cold war. To slowly and reduce the power of Russia.

First introduce them to democracy which to a Russian historically has never had any experience in. we all saw the fiasco of President Yeltsin.

secondly introduce market reforms to disorient their market models. that created oligarchs and dire poverty forcing the Russian elites to choose Putin ( this was unexpected and didn't work for the west.)

thirdly reduce their (Russian) influence diplomatically. make it seem that whatever the wanted or did was wrong. this is working.
They have reduced the Russians diplomatic power to an extent the USA is able to walk all over Russian supporters with the blessing of the pro west countries. Libya, Syria etc.

Putin knows this, his people know this, they inherited a country that used to be a super power.
it was in chaos both politically and economically. crime was high, inflation was biting hard, terrorism etc.

Putin needed first to put the country in order and regain its economic independence, then the military power would come later. They didn't plan or have time to plan a counter attack to the USA's game plan.

The USA noticed this and took advantage and have consistently undermined Russia.

It has worked. Russia has been busy in Georgia ,Ukraine, Chechenya, Syria etc.

The USA has them where they want them. even the invasion of the Crimea has worked in their favour. They are slowly isolating Russia and making it a one country state without the previous satellite states.