Why Russia's Ukraine aggression matters to Americans

Nobody knows for sure exactly what Vladimir Putin is doing with around 100,000 Russian troops parked near the Russia-Ukraine border, but it's making the US and Europe extremely nervous.

President Joe Biden said this week he expected the Russians would "move in" and that a slight incursion would be met differently than a full-on invasion.

The US has spent the past few days cleaning up that remark and making clear any type of invasion is unacceptable.

Asked in Geneva by a reporter if he thought, like Biden, that an invasion was likely, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used some interesting language.

"Unless the United States doesn't go to bed with Ukraine, I don't think so," Lavrov said.

What does it mean for countries to 'go to bed'? All of this high-stakes geopolitical chess, then, comes down to how intimate the US gets with Ukraine in the eyes of Russia.

After meeting with Lavrov in Geneva, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated there would be steep consequences for an invasion, but also that the two countries are still talking. The US will provide a written response to Russia's concerns within the next week.

Putin's desire to somehow reconstitute the power of the Soviet Union is no secret. Spreading Russian power further into Ukraine would be a logical step and a direct challenge to Western democracies.

Putin will require something. Former US Secretary of Defense William Cohen told CNN's Kate Bolduan Friday that Putin is not a "Hamlet-like character" trying to decide what to do. Everything is calculated and intentional.