As the threat of an invasion of Ukraine again appeared to slip into a holding pattern, western leaders and diplomats were left scrambling Tuesday to interpret conflicting signals coming out of Moscow.
Famously described by Britain’s wartime prime minister Winston Churchill as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,” Russia put its willingness to play by its own rules on full display with a token withdrawal of some troops exercising in Crimea and the offer of renewed security dialogue with the West.
Russia made those gestures after several days of delivering sharp anti-western rhetoric — and after allied intelligence sources warned again
