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But there will be much more kicking to come after Russia and the West have sized each other up and calculated their options. For now they're mainly trading insults and innuendo--and if the rhetoric is more intense in Moscow than in Washington or any West European capital, that's because the stakes are so much higher for Russia. "The Russians are prepared to go to the mat on this in a way that we just aren't," says Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington. "We do not have the political will or the attention span." Not so in Moscow. "Putin takes the long view," says Klimov, the Russian diplomat.
At least the two sides are still talking. On Feb. 21, Obama called Putin for what one senior U.S. official described as an hour-long "constructive and workmanlike conversation." But should Ukraine fall deeper into crisis, the conversation may yet turn to confrontation. Putin won't remain in the wings much longer.