How well will western sanctions work with Putin's Russia?

So, how is that "reset Button" working out?  Putin has 16,000 (as an estimation) troops on the ground in Crimea, and is threatening all of Ukraine.  President Obama and Sec. of State Kerry issue strongly worded statements and Putin farts in their general direction.


This is not looking for the west.  NATO has proven to be pretty much a debating society, and there will never be any action by the UN so long as China and Russia have veto power in the Security Council.


Lets be clear here, the US and the Europeans are not going to go to war over Crimea or all of Ukraine for that matter,  Putin learned his lession in Georgia that he can get away with land grabs.  Sanctions are an option, freezing bank accounts in the EU and USA are certainly possible, but Russia stores their wealth in Cyprus, the new Switzerland for money laundering.


So how about a little hypothetical situation here.  The west imposes tough economic and military sanctions on Russia.  Putin, like all dictators loves to play tit-for-tat.  Now that Obama killed the menned space program, the country that once put men on the moon can't even put astronauts in low Earth orbit.  We rely on "our friends" the Russians to use their antiquated Soviet era Soyuz space craft to get Americans and Europeans to the International Space Station.  Russia can easily unilaterality decide to no longer transport our people to/from the space station, possibly stranding our people there.  Would he dare to do such a thing? You betcha in a Moscow minute if it served his interests.


Here's just another unintended consequence of a president who is more interested about redistrubuting the wealth than further advancing science and technology.  NASA is a shell of what it was, and "our friends" the Chinese are working on lunar missions, and not necessarily for the good of mankind.


But fighting Global Warming is far more important to President Obama than engaging in a very dangerous world and promoting our interests at home and abroad, and by abroad, that includes in outer space.