Its a good strategy from Russia's point of view - I doubt any of the other leaders can match Putin for pure brass balls and a willingness to not flinch in a game of chicken.
It'll yield some incremental gains that are imo justified for playing the game well, but I don't see "War in Europe" happening. (Ukraine skirmishes aside).
Viewed in this light, the Ukraine cris becomes more and more worrisome. The US is deeply politically divided; not do most Republicans consider Obama a weak President, but there are large divisions within each party party about what the correct course of action is, which is (I think) one reason taht most of the Republican critique of Obama has been on matters of style rather than on substance. None of them want an American that looks weak, but there is nothing approaching a consensus about what action we should take instead - for every proponent of bombing ISIS or funnelling arms to Ukraine, there's someone else questioning what exact interests we have there.
This isn't so surprising; Europe's internal politics are badly fragmented (IMHO due to a failure to pursue full federalization over the last couple of decades following the introduction of the Euro) and Middle Eastern politics are in a weird flux that I don't know how to read at all. Paradoxically I think the US has greater common interests with Iran than it does with Saudi Arabia right now, the opposite of our nominal affiliations.