This morning, a White House aide told reporters that Obama’s sanctions are visibly “weakening” Putin and Russia.

Hours later, the White House recognizes that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could come any moment.

Speaking from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Mike Rogers, the chair of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, said US intelligence officials were convinced “that Putin is not done in Ukraine”.

Surprise. As I’ve written, Russian paranoia demands a larger sphere of influence and a large buffer of puppet governments, all the way to the German border with Poland. Plus, Putin has no strategic reason to stop with Crimea. Having articulated the Putin Doctrine that allows Russia to invade any country where two or three gather to speak Russian, any tweet from a Russian-speaking person in any country as a pretext for invasion and occupation.Finally, Putin knows that his window for re-establishing the Soviet Union’s extensive collection of occupied nations could slam shut when the United States elects a new President in 2016.

Here’s my best guess on Putin’s map for 2016:

Red is conquered. Pink represents countries forced, by Western weakness, to accept Russian dictates.

To me, the question is no longer “will Putin continue to conquer Europe,” but “will the West survive?”

The US and Europe have no economic means to go to war without first defaulting on trillions of dollars in debt. The Obama Pentagon has systematically dismantled the US military, currently working on a plan to reduce forces to pre-World War II levels. (Because man is too advanced to ever fight another war.) Plus, the US public’s tolerance for war is near zero. From left to right on political dial, the energy comes from those who want America to get out of the World’s Policeman role.

Put it altogether, and we could be in a for nasty 2014-2015.

This might not be a bad time to learn some basic disaster preparedness skills. Start with Peak Prosperity blog. If the bad thing never comes in your lifetime, you’ll at least learn how to live a little cheaper.