Trump knows how to play the media all on his own. He creates his own Twitter feed and uses it. He knows how to get the media's attention without the benefit of a state-controlled media. He does it all on his own. Trump understands how a free media works.

I don't want to suggest that Trump is emulating Putin. Trump is his own creation.

Every military scenario that the Russians basically engage in their annual exercises, either on their western or eastern flank, always involved some kind of local revolt pulling in outside forces.

The Russian leadership doesn't operate in the same way as ours does. Informal networks have a much more important role to play than formal networks.

Tough sanctions would mean saying to BP, Exxon, Chevron, Shell, Boeing and Siemens that they can't do business in Russia.

Chechens need to be able to develop their own viable political society and regional economy whether they remain part of Russia or not.

Chechnya was part of that whole wave of entities of the Soviet Union that had a very separate sense of identity, of political and social history, that set them apart from the rest of Russia.

Everybody used to talk about Chechnya as a place, in the Russian imperial and Soviet periods, that was essentially governed by extended family and regional networks that substituted for older clan structures. But those networks have been destroyed.

People in Washington, D.C., may not be paying that much attention to what's happening in Chechnya, but people in Riyadh and Amman and elsewhere are.

You could say that by standing up to Russia, the U.S. is finally getting some balls.