'Putin may not have wanted war, but he has deliberately escalated the crisis in order to have his demands be treated with a greater degree of seriousness,' writes Dennis Murphy
. It could be that Putin still believes there’s a play he could make. so perhaps he may seek some soft commitment from Germany or France about NATO expansion. That too is unlikely to succeed.
The first is to neither back down, nor to escalate. A neutral, do-nothing option. It may be pursued in the short term, but Putin will eventually have to go in one direction or the other. That leaves the last option: escalation. If Russia wants war, it will pursue this option. But even if Russia does not want war, it may still choose to escalate if it believes that it might grant Russia some additional leverage in negotiations with NATO.
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