Chance,

Can Putin wait it out for 7½ more weeks?

Or will the puppet masters over the current administration manage to push and escalate things, to where Putin will have to strike the west?

It looked like they were trying to get him make the first move, like the pressure placed upon Japan, to get them to strike first 84 years ago.

But he hasn't taking the bait so far.

Maybe they will give up on trying to get him to strike first, and do it themselves?

.