It seems that if this is really what Putin wanted--and maybe he does--he could have achieved it without war. He could have just done it. It still seems like the

It seems that if this is really what Putin wanted--and maybe he does--he could have achieved it without war. He could have just done it. It still seems like the most likely reason he did the war is that he wanted to do the war. He really does want territorial expansion of the empire; that's why he expended his influence in trying to get the US out of NATO. During the Soviet era, when there was no official exchange between the dollar and the ruble, there was a dollar-based black market. Possibly that would return (if it isn't already).