So, if military might wasn't the defining leverage that pulled Russia back in, what was?
Putin has reached his objective(see my previous post) and he pulled his troops simply because they are no longer needed. You can look my previous post - there was literally no reason for that troops to stay and it did cost a lot more money to have them on the border(food, shelter etc..) then in place of their dislocation. In case he needs troops - he can use the ones stationed in Crimea(they got massive upgrades, "legal", and just as close), troops that are still fighting in Novorossia(they made documents for everyone they needed, so a lot of troops are *literally* indistinguishable from russian Ukranians that live in Novorossia, again "legal" in terms of sanctions) or they could just get them back on the border faster then Ukranian army can make any significant progress in Novorossia(Putin is not sending them too far). I'm pretty sure that Putin never intended to get control of all the Ukraine, in any case Russia certanly doesn't want to deal with crowd of angry nationalists inside it's borders right now.
And again, what do you think was the purpose of that troops? My undestanding is it had multiple purposes: to make it easier to smuggle troops inside Ukraine, to scare Ukrainian army so that they don't do anything "rash", etc.. There are possibly a lot of them but they all have one thing in common: as soon as it became clear that pro-Russian forces are not going to significantly advance any further and the situation stabilized - their presence lost it's purpose and their continued dislocation turned into a waste of money.
The sanctions did have an impact no matter how Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov tries to spin things to look more like a power play that favors Russia's actions over the sanctions.
Right now sanctions haven't impacted Russia in any significant way yet. I mean that Russian market drop is noticable, ruble is slowly but steadily devaluating, cash outflow is increasing etc.. But still it is not noticable for ordinary people like me and experts predict that any considerable effect will be seen closer to mid-spring. Right now Putin has bought a very important military base, quite a bit of land, a giant boost in popularity in Russia, a place in history etc.... all of it for about 200bil$ if you count everything(with cash outflow) for now. That is quite a good price! I bet any country will agree to that deal. I mean even twice that deal. You can't disagree that if USA could get the same for the same amount of money they would have agreed without thinking. And Putin has a big chance to expand Russia even more after the situation in Novorossia became more clear, it is like there is a sale!
This was an issue that was first made public weeks ago by Russia officials themselves
So? Of cource Russia wants all sanctions cancelled(why wouldn't they?). Your main mistake is - Putin is not going to forfeight his interests in exchange of sanctions cancellation, he likes what he is doing and he knows that there most likely will be no protests against him in Russia untill ordinary people start to really suffer from the sanctions, and that shouldn't happen at least until spring. This is not the first time USA uses sanctions against Russia(Chechnya, Georgia, etc..), and Russia has never changed it's goals to conform to the demands.
This is really important: Russian position on external sanctions is the same as it's position on terrorism - no negotiations on matters of national interest. And I mean it. Putin will not budge even if you increase sanctions tenfold unless there is a civilian unrest protesting him(yep, he is a dick like that). And, please, believe me here, there will be no protests even in spring - there is a thing that Russians hate and are scared of even more then low quality of life, etc.. It is Maidan. I will not debate it here, it probably requires a lot of explaning of politics, culture and history but you can ask any Russian you want - you will get the same answer.
Proof from article you linked
Lavrov:
"First of all, it is important that our partners understand the futility of ultimatums and threats."
...
"I very much hope that the United States will finally... realize that they can no longer act as the prosecutor, the judge, and the executioner in every part of the world and that they need to cooperate to resolve issues."
There is MUCH more in article I linked, or even better listen to what Putin is saying.
The only reason they've come back to the negotiating table is because of the economic impact the sanctions have had on their economy.
This is not true, read what I wrote before. More:
1) Putin never left the "negotiating table", there were a lot of meetings with EU officials(Impact of EU sanctions is incomparably bigger then from USA).
2) USA/EU never promised anything specific for pulling back the troops, but they could cancel them if violence in Novorossia was stopped and heavy weapons were moved away. Strangely he did the first.
3) Putin could have pulled back the troops three weeks ago(when the artice was made), situation on Ukraine was the same. Why he didn't? Because he doesn't care about sanctions and he knows that Poroshenko will not start any aggressive actions right before elections, so he waited as much as he wanted.
4) Winter is coming!
No other country fired a shot in hostilities towards them. So, if military might wasn't the defining leverage that pulled Russia back in, what was?
Common sense. Really. There was literally no point in keeping them. And there wasn't even any promises from USA/EU coinciding with it. And forces of Crimea and Novorossia are not leaving anywhere. Putin got exactly what he wanted, now he just need to stay low and wait until sanctions are gradually cancelled like it happened with all the previous sanctions, demands were never met but still they were dropped.
Now, whether you wish to acknowledge that the sanctions had a significant impact is totally up to you, but there's no denying they did have an impact.
Of cource they had impact. Just not the USA's sanctions, but EU's. And it didn't affect Putin, he will continue to live in wealth without any care about sanctions. It will impact me, my family, my friends etc.. Next spring is going to be hard but I hope there will be no internal unrests and we will all live.
This is exactly the point I was trying to make writing all of this. Next time you support this sanctions - know, you are not doing them against Putin, you are doing them against me. You try to increase them - Putin still will not care. They will not change anything. Russia will not try to konquer whole Ukraine. Crimea is not going to return. Novorossia is not goint to capitulate. It will just hurt me and people I care about a bit more. And of cource it will make a lot of people
*hate* West a bit more. And a lot of people will love Putin a bit more, because in this conflict he looks like our protector against "evil" West, trying to find new markets, making some innovations... It doesn't even matter what he does, external "punishment" is enough. So Russia will slowly distance itself from the West and turn to the East and South. Putin will continue to gain power. And he will slowly increase the censorship. And he will..... Well we all know how it ends. The thing is - sanctions are bad for both Russia and EU/USA. I think a quote from Dmitry Medvedev's interview from my previous post fits here perfectly:
"I don't want to dignify it with a response. It's sad, it's like some kind of mental aberration."