Simferopol, Crimea (CNN) -- Is Russian President Vladimir Putin an opportunist, grabbing at chances to poke the West in the eye, or a clever strategist with the longer-term goal of restoring a greater Russia? Is he simply riding a tide of Russian patriotic fervor over Crimea? Is he a rational actor aware of the delicate balances within the international system, or as one observer put it, "drunk on power" and oblivious to sanctions? These are the questions preoccupying western governments and Russia's neighbors, after the swift annexation of Crimea and Russian military maneuvers close to the Ukrainian border. There were some tantalizing clues in Putin's pugnacious speech to the Duma this week. He described the fall of the Soviet Union as unfortunate -- because it had separated Russians. "The Russian nation became one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders," he said.
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Russian President approval ratings are at highest in recent years
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Analysts are asking if he is a rational actor, or "drunk on power"
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Assumption at NATO headquarters is that Putin won't stop at Crimea
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Russian businesses will suffer as Putin portrays West as adversary not potential partner
The subtext was that Putin's @placeholder was on the wrong side of history -- anti-democratic, corrupt, without values.