This is the moment when either delusion or the deluded is sacrificed: a moment of crisis

The open statements of the Russian bankers and oligarchs in the wake of Putin's speech of December 4 clearly signaled the beginning of a combined frontal assault on Russia, where the hand that is striking from within is deadlier than that from the outside. Rosneft and other government Goliath-like corporations have been part of the attack on the ruble.

Thus what appeared as paralysis, sabotage, and last-second improvisations, but were presented as the acme of strategy and wisdom, do appear to be paralysis, sabotage, and improvisations ... unless the strategy had very different authorship and purpose.

In other words, those who have been paid to do the right thing seem to have been bought and paid well not to do the right thing.

And this means that, not only financially, but also politically and geopolitically, Russia has moved into the rapids. Could have this been prevented? It could have been prevented and should have been prevented.

Unfortunately, policies that are bought and sold seem to matter more than free advice or warnings, however good these were.

Now, some of us may continue to hope that the same people who brought Russia and us into this crisis could and should also take us out of it.

What would it take to correct serious mistakes or to straighten a strategy, which has been so effective and so successful?

As things now evolved--i.e. with Lavrov calling Poroshenko "the best chance Ukraine has" and Crimea being declared the one unique, exclusive exception (so what does this make the Russians on Donbass to be?), and Lavrov's clear and explicit disavowal of even federalization or local autonomy for Donetsk and Lugansk, it no longer appears out of place to assume that if the Kiev regime decided to shout "Glory to Ukraine" and Moscow-approved-and-prompted leadership of Donetsk and Lugansk were to shout back "Glory to the heroes!" (according to the old Banderite script), then Lavrov and the Kremlin would be ready to call this dialogue. The very one Lavrov has been valiantly fighting all that time for.