In the two years since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, relations with Washington and major European powers have deteriorated sharply. And today, thanks to the unsettled situation in eastern Ukraine and recent Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war, the damage is unlikely to be repaired any time soon. What political, military, and diplomatic calculations underlay Putin’s decisions to intervene in Ukraine and Syria? Do Donetsk and Damascus mark the frontline of a new Cold War?