NEWSWATCH: “While the world is distracted, Putin escalates his war in Ukraine” – Washington Post
… The … FSB, claimed … one of its officers was killed … near the de facto border between Crimea and Ukraine. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in early 2014, then backed a violent uprising in … Donetsk and Luhansk. … According to the FSB … a second attempt occurred … with support from Ukrainian artillery, killing a Russian … soldier. Ukraine responded that it was all ‘fantasy,’ a provocation from Russia. … We’ve seen this movie before. … Putin’s troops stealthily took over … Crimea with their “little green men,” soldiers without insignia; he has never confessed to Russia’s true role in … the Donbass insurrection nor the shoot-down of a Malaysian civilian jetliner. … Putin plays by his own rules, even at the 2014 Winter Olympics … [with] the Russian state … systematically dispensing performance-enhancing drugs …. Putin may be hoping for a lift before … parliamentary elections, perhaps distracting Russians from … economic troubles … Putin may also calculate that – with the United States distracted by a presidential campaign, Europe preoccupied with Brexit and the migration crisis, and the world watching the 2016 Olympic Games … this might be a window of opportunity to act without fear of a serious response. …