(CNN) -- There is a growing belief among many in the West that Europe and the United States provoked President Putin into annexing Crimea. Moscow's reaction to NATO expansion and to the EU's efforts to bring Ukraine into its orbit was, it is said, inevitable. In this view, Western leaders backed Putin into a corner and, with the situation worsening in eastern Ukraine, it is time we gave him an exit plan. Interestingly, this is the prevalent view in Southeast Asia, a region not lacking a large and assertive neighbor of its own. In Singapore last week, several prominent figures told me Southeast Asia is managing better the challenge of a resurgent China than Europe is a re-assertive Russia. But this is a misleading comparison. China and Russia present entirely different propositions to their neighbors.
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There is a growing view Russia was provoked into annexing Crimea, Robin Niblett says
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This belief is prevalent in Southeast Asia, where China is asserting itself, he says
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But Niblett says China's president recognizes the logic of win-win diplomacy
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Putin's "winner takes all" approach, however, requires a strong response, he says
@placeholder's current account surplus was already projected to have disappeared this year, before the crisis over Ukraine.