Putin’s latest provocations once again put Washington in an awful bind.  Photo by Pavel Bednyakov / Sputnik / AFP / Getty On Friday, the Biden Administration issued a new round of sanctions on Russian entities and individuals, after Vladimir Putin formally declared the annexation of four regions of Ukraine and accused the United States of “satanism.” The past week has marked a series of escalations, but, as the staff writer Susan B. Glasser writes in an urgent new column, we may be further along in the conflict with Putin than most in the West seem willing to admit. Glasser speaks with the Russia expert Fiona Hill, who suggests that a world war has already been under way for years. As for what to expect next from Putin, Glasser writes, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching Putin all of this time, it’s that he is not one to walk away from a fight or back down while losing—escalation is his game, and by now he is very, very practiced at it.” Where do Washington and the rest of the world go from here? —Ian Crouch, newsletter editor | 
