dealing with putin. in the wake of her departure germany appears to be returning to its more traditional search for middle ground between east and west. the biden administration has been alert to this problem sending cia director bill burns to berlin and inviting merkel's successor olaf scholz to washington for a meeting with president biden. matthews points out that putin would not benefit from a war, especially if the sanctions being discussed are put into place against russia. while putin has built formidable foreign exchange reserves, constraining russia's gas and oil exports would devastate the russian economy. most young adult russians, those who would be called upon to fight, are not gung-ho for a war against ukraine which they regard positively. now, this doesn't mean that war is impossible for even unlikely. wars can happen because of misperceptions, misunderstandings, miscalculations and even because backed into a corner countries find they can't find a path to