Putin wants to be the Russian Bismarck.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Putin wants to be the Russian Bismarck. That is the plan, it was always stated openly but no one pays any attention to 19th century history any more so no one got the obvious references (like the "Customs Union" sharing the same name as the Zollverein, the first step in the economic integration of the myriad North German states in 1834).

Now we are in 1866, and Prussia is about to provoke a war with Austria over the question of the administration of the small territory of Schleswig-Holstein. The hope is that this will be a swift war resulting in a permanent re-alignment of the smaller German states within a Prussian-led confederation.

So replace Prussia with Russia, Austria with Ukraine, Schleswig-Holstein with Donbas and the smaller German states with the smaller post-Soviet states.