Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea and threat to Ukraine are causing damage he perhaps did not anticipate: U.S. disorientation and profound division in Europe, especially in Germany, and in NATO. A real risk of war.
American Secretary of State John Kerry has given an interview to the Wall Street Journal of extraordinary brutality in its treatment of President Vladimir Putin and of Russia. It states that the U.S. government and administration are "fully aware" that this confrontation with Russia could lead to nuclear war.
He is quoted (without confirmation) in another publication notably neoconservative in outlook, The Daily Beast, as privately describing the Russians as "thugs" and the Russian foreign minister as "a liar."