Russia returns. And this time it is an empire in control of the landmass from Normandy to the Japan Sea. The short summary of the collapse of the Ukraine Orange Revolution in a food throwing confusion the last days is that the Russian cabinet under the nimble, tsarist Putin has cowed the EU and reestablished Russian supremacy. Ukraine will now be handed back to Moscow in a red ribbon come the new elections. The most important man every morning in London, Brussels, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Athens, is not George Bush but Vladimir Putin. The few hours of natural gas choke off through the pipelines in Ukraine has left the EU in surrender. The battle of Europe is over. Kremlin is Caesar.

The planet now enjoys the paradoxical policies of not one but three superpowers. First is the United States with an uncontested blue water Navy for power projection and an as yet uncontested air fleet of satellites, bombers and drones that can target hombres in real time. Second is China with an expansionist economic policy that will become the planet’s gross domestic product within moments. And third is Russia with its bottomless energy reserves and a concentration of Gazprom power in the hands of an ironbound gang of secret police trained nationalists and their kindred of Cain.

Of the trio, my choice for most potential to get what it wants short of EMP ending digital commerce is the new tsar, same as the old tsar.