michael kauffman najir hashami, and. michael kauffman, they used to call them sovietologists, and now they're back. it's been an amazing time. >> it's been a profound year for u.s.-russian relations and russia's relations in the west. both russian's behavior and relationship with russia. >> the maidan fighters had barely cooled in 2014. i don't think anybody expected the audacious move into crimea that now is part and parcel of russia. >> and russia was unprepared for what it was about to do. it's hard to believe as russia was winding down the social olympics, 30 days after that they had annexed crimea, much faster than the united states could react to it and crimea is likely to be passed down to another generation. it has been added to the russian map, and most people in the west believe 20 to 30 years before that issue is touched again. >> mik ko oyang. people watching what was happening started to grumble that the west had, quote you quote/unquote, should do something. but it was unclear what anybody could do about it