These are dangerous words that could turn around and bite Russia:
The annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 provoked the worst crisis between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War. Putin said he had no regrets.
"It's not because Crimea has a strategic importance in the Black Sea region. It's because this has elements of historical justice. I believe we did the right thing and I don't regret anything," the RIA news agency quoted Putin as saying in the documentary "The President".
Putin also said sanctions imposed by the West after the annexation were aimed at halting Russia's progress as a global power.
I know the Far East is a long way from Moscow, but Putin is aware that Russian territory out there could be on the other side of that historical justice argument, isn't he? China does call the Treaty of Aigun an "unequal treaty" after all.
Might not China's reclamation of all that Russian-occupied land be an even larger case of historical justice?
And Russia has only bought 6 more years of time on this question.
As for that halt to Russia's progress to global power status, I think Putin is a speed bump all by himself.
