I asked a friend from Russia to comment my article because I wanted to have an insider view on this story. Here is her comment, I very much appreciate it:

Hi, Michael!Well, that's an interesting view on international geopolitics concerning Russia. But I have few comments. Nobody needs the second Cold War,including Russia.But like any country, Ryssia would like to be heard by the other countries at least after such a long period of ignoring of its interests. And that doesn't mean that it climbs to world power. But taking into account such factors as world globalisation, economic recession in the american economy, huge prices for oil, gas and energy carriers, like any country having any influence instruments (oil resources in this case),Russia aims at improving its position in the world geopolitics, but not at dominating in the world. And that's normal for any country. Especially for the biggest one in the world. Russia just shows its independence from american influence and that's all. For sure Russia still have some internal problems, but it has to build normal market economy for 20 years the time when other countries had 200 years for that. For sure it makes mistakes like any country made through all its history. Nobody talks about second cold war. Russia just would like to play in the world geopolitics without anyone's orders. That's the deal.