Putin – testing western mettle

Russian troops are massing on the Ukrainian border with warnings of a possible invasion. Belarus (a Russian client state) has engineered a migrant crisis on its border with Poland that could spiral into violence with most of the migrants want to get to Germany. And Russia has cut gas supplies to Europe, sending prices soaring with winter looming. The theory is that Putin is testing Western resolve in a world without Angela Merkel. She has long been seen as the only western leader with any influe