HOW’S this for joined-up thinking?

President Barack Obama, egged on by the imperialist ambitions of the EU which wants to add Ukraine to its number of member states, has pledged his support for the assorted crowd of rabble-rousers and anarchists in Kiev who deposed their elected President Viktor Yanukovych. President Obama says he has ruled out a military response to Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, so he is using money as his main weapon.

Kiev is broke. So President Obama has kindly given them $1bn (£600m). Kiev, and indeed all Ukraine, relies on Russia for its energy supply, so the whole of the $1bn has being spent on Russian gas.

The wily old KGB man Vladimir Putin has responded by doubling the price of his gas.

So President Obama has kindly put his hand in his pocket again and given Kiev a further $1bn.

In this way the president is “punishing”

Russia by contributing $2bn to its coffers President Obama rang up President Putin and reiterated the United States’ strong opposition to the actions Russia has already taken to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This phone call came after the President criticised the build-up of Russian troops on the Ukraine border and called on Moscow to pull its military back. US officials estimate 40,000 Russian troops have gathered near the Ukrainian border, where they claim they have begun establishing supply lines.

Obama said Putin appeared to be stuck in a Cold War mentality and had shown “a deeply-held grievance about what he considers to be the loss of the Soviet Union.

You would have thought after a couple of decades there’d be an awareness on the part of any Russian leader that the path forward is not to revert back to the kinds of practices that were so prevalent during the Cold War.”

That is a statement of breath-taking naivety. For years Putin has been saying that he regards the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest political catastrophe of the 20th Century”. He has said this in Pravda, on video, Facebook, Twitter and you can hear his speeches on the Kremlin’s website.

Yet President Obama says the path forward is not to revert to the Cold War. The fact is that the Cold War has never ended. Putin’s declared aim is to restore the USSR. For cosmetic reasons, he is willing to call it something else – the Russian Federation or such like – but there’s no difference.

The commissars are still in place with all their corrupt practices, organised crime, bribery, political assassinations and moneylaundering.

Only now they are not called commissars but oligarchs who own oil, gas, properties, industries, banks and other enterprises throughout Europe – including English premier League football clubs.

Anyone in even half his wits knows what Putin’s game is, but for the most informative description and analysis of what is going on, we should all read the blog of Alexander Boot, a Russian who escaped the USSR decades ago and now lives and writes in Britain.

President Obama has ruled out a military response – until now. The trouble is that the situation is so volatile that he might be drawn into using force. Then the danger is that, having done too little for too long, he will lurch into doing too much, too late.

It all comes of making idle threats. President Obama shouted at Putin: “Your annexation of the Crimea will have consequences.”

Yeah, how about the gift of $2bn for starters?