Diplomacy

[Hartford688]

Clever.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/30/russia-plans-immediate-counter-measures-us-diplomats

[Hartford688]

And the President Elect agrees with me!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/814919370711461890

[Atilla60]

 :)

Did Vlad just

at Obama?

[Hartford688]

He did indeed.

And also threw a curveball at Trump - either he can rescind Obama's expulsions and overrule his intelligence agency advice (and many of his own party) or he has to be the the bad man to his buddy and maintain it.

Whatever happens, Putin can't lose out from where he is. Excellent diplomacy.

I think well set out below:

A skilled hand: Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent

This was a carefully stage-managed response from Mr Putin - dangling the possibility of tit-for-tat expulsions and then showing magnanimity in postponing any response - at least for now.
It is fundamentally a put-down for the Obama administration, suggesting that, in Moscow's view, it is such a lame-duck, so irrelevant, as to make any response unnecessary.
It also poses an immediate test for President-elect Trump. Will he be convinced by the evidence the US intelligence agencies say they have? And, if so, what course will he steer in his relations with Russia?

This is no new Cold War. Russia is simply a kind of "pocket" superpower, nothing like the Soviet Union of old. But Mr Putin has shown here in relations with the West, as in Ukraine and Syria, that he can play a limited hand with great skill. Mr Trump will need to respond to this challenge in a decisive but graduated way.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38464612

[besilarius]

Know a couple of people who work for Agencies. 
Their feeling is that Trump is verging on total delusion in regards to Intelligence.  He is acting like he knows better than the intel collectors and there is no reason for him to be schooled.
This could end up very badly.  One fellow went so far as to say that he believes the Baltics will be assaulted within two years because Trump is sending so many mixed messages to foreign powers.