One wag suggested to me that the Bolton appointment should not really come as a surprise, since it fits the recent Washington pattern – if White House chaos can be considered a pattern. For Kremlin leaders, though, White House zigzags are no laughing matter. Let's try to put ourselves in their shoes and imagine how the unfolding of recent events may have looked to them.

On March 1 in his state-of-the-nation address, President Putin revealed several new strategic weapons systems that Russia developed after the Bush/Cheney/Bolton administration abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which had been the cornerstone of strategic stability for the previous 30 years. (John Bolton is included in that august company because, as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, he was Vice President Dick Cheney's enforcer to put the kibosh on the ABM Treaty.)

You would not know it from the "mainstream media," but in that same speech Putin offered to "sit down at the negotiating table" and "work together … to ensure global security" – taking into account the strategic parity Moscow claims.