"Having just hosted the Winter Olympics in Sochi, he must have realized he was all but throwing away seven years and $50 billion of effort to polish Russia’s image. He evidently calculated that any diplomatic damage did not outweigh what he sees as a threat to Russia’s historic interest in Ukraine" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/world/europe/russia-to-pay-not-so-simple.html?_r=1