Update on Kosovo: gratuitous insult to Russia.

On Ukraine's turn around on NATO membership:

The Russian resurgence took a potentially fatal hit over Kosovo’s Feb. 18 secession from Serbia. This was an issue of minor importance to the United States and most Western European countries, but a major threat to Russia’s effort to demonstrate its return to major power status. For Russia and Putin to survive the Kosovo insult, retribution elsewhere in the Russian near abroad was expected — namely in the Caucasus, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states.

"Geopolitical Diary: Ukraine's NATO About-face." Stratfor email, 3/7/08 (link omitted).