Candidate Putin on The State of The World

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The American Interest:

It is the best of times and the worst of times for Russia’s once and future President Vladimir Putin. Victory in this week’s Presidential election is almost certain, but the Prime Minister is no longer the absolute master of Russian politics. Not only does he face a protest movement that includes some of the most thoughtful and creative people in his country; the old techniques don’t seem to be working anymore. As a recent German documentary shows, Putin’s old routine of judo, swimming, and hunting polar bears “no longer comes across as virile but, rather, as exhausting and joyless.”

“Exhausting and joyless” also happens to be a good description of Russian foreign policy today. Putin, who has been addressing his electorate in a series of articles published in Russian newspapers, wrote an op-ed on foreign policy for Moskovskie Novosti recently, available in English at The Moscow News.

Russia’s number one problem, it appears, is the USA; Putin does not seem to share the view that the US is in a terminal death spiral of decline and decay. Rather, he fears the growing power and assertiveness of a country that from his point of view is advancing its economic, political, security and commercial interests around the world without much regard for the concerns of others.

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Putin puts his paranoia on display.