Seen from the point of view of President Vladimir Putin, Russia's foreign policy of late had been enjoying something of a purple patch.
Putin has kept the West at bay over the conflict in Syria for three years and his client, President Bashar Assad, in power thanks to the Russian veto in the U.N. Security Council.
And for a brief period, it appeared Moscow had pulled off another coup — blocking closer integration of Ukraine and the EU while pulling that country closer to his envisioned Eurasian Union, the key front in his effort to reunite in a political and economic bloc as much as possible of the former Soviet Union under Moscow's tutelage.