I don't think that we're necessarily going to see the U.S. and Russia becoming out and out military competitors against each other.
Kimberly Zisk MartenVladimir Putin doesn't really gain anything economically from annexation of Crimea. It's more a gain of power. It's a gain of what he can say to his home population about what he's accomplished as president. And so it's really much more an individual gain for Putin politically than for Russia as a state, because over the long term, Russia is not going to particularly benefit from this.
Kimberly Zisk MartenI think Russia must have been very embarrassed by Syria's use of chemical weapons because it really undercut Putin's role back in 2013 in saying he had helped get rid of Syria's weapons.
Kimberly Zisk MartenI'm not sure about whether Ukraine will ever be joining. As long as there's a frozen conflict on Ukrainian territory, they can't possibly join. And that's probably one of the reasons why Vladimir Putin is interested in having a frozen conflict there, so that there is no border security.
Kimberly Zisk Marten