Putin has clearly stated that he does not believe the Ukrainians are a separate people. That should tell you everything you need to know what this is truly about. Putting that aside for a moment, Germany's economy is almost three times the size of Russia's. The UK's economy is twice as big. Russia's economy is smaller than Italy and is just a bit larger than Spain. Russia is simply not powerful enough, nor important enough, to expect a buffer of satellite states like they had 50 years ago.