Jim Hanson, a retired member of the U.S. Army Special Forces and president of the Security Studies Group, said in his assessment, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan in Ukraine is developing according to the Kremlin’s initial goals, except that the Russian military is floundering. “I’ve known what his ultimate goal was from the beginning, and it was to gain recognition for Crimea, to take official control of the two Russian-speaking provinces, and at that point, to use a further incursion into Ukraine proper as a bargaining chip to get sanctions removed,” Hanson told the host of NTD’s Capitol Report, Steve Lance, in a March 8 interview. “I think this is playing out pretty much as Vlad expected, except for the fact that his military vastly underperformed.” He said that Ukraine has been using the anti-aircraft equipment it has to undermine Russia’s military. “What they also have, though, is the Russians …