https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R4pQB-9OcU
The 2020 World Expo will be hosted by Dubai. This old video shows Putin speaking in English and pitching for Russia to be considered as a host for the World Expo.
Obama reignited the Cold War instead of giving Russia the respect it was demanding. It is all about respect and recognition, which is what we often call national pride. When things go wrong economically, it is national pride that leads to war.
Ukraine should have simply been divided along ethnic lines by language, and the East should have joined Russia since they saw themselves as Russian. Instead of spending all this money on war, there should have been an orderly buy-out of those who wanted to move sides. That would have ended the crisis. The current view of borders was drawn by old politics and is rather absurd. In the end, the borders will be redrawn once again.