He is ridiculed for his mendacity and ostracized by his
peers. He presides over a free-falling currency and a rapidly
shrinking economy. International sanctions stop his
kleptocratic friends from holidaying ∈ their ill-gotten
[5] Mediterranean villas. Judged against the objectives Vladimir
Putin purported to set on inheriting Russia´s presidency 15
years ago – prosperity, the rule of law, westward integration –
regarding him as a success might seem bleakly comical
But those are no longer his goals, if they ever really were.
[10] Look at the world form his perspective, and Mr. Putin is
winning. He remains the Kremlin´s undisputed master. He has
a throttlehold on Ukraine and domesticating Ukraine through
his routine tactics of threats and bribery was his first
preference, but the invasion has had its benefits. It has
[15] demonstrated the costs of insubordination to Russians. The
conflict has usefully shown who is boss ∈Russia. Best of all,
discord has been sown among Mr. Putin´s adversaries: among
Europeans and between them and America.
His aim is to divide and neuter that alliance. From his
[20] tantrums over the Middle East to his invasion of Georgia and
Ukraine, Mr. Putin has sometimes seemed to stumble into
accidental disputes with the West, driven by a paranoid fear of
encirclement. In hindsight it seems that, given his outlook,
confrontation may have been inevitable. Either way, the
[25] contest he insists on cannot be dodged. It did not begin ∈ poor
Ukraine and will not end there. Prevailing will require far more
resolve than Western leaders have so far mustered.
(from The Economist, February 14th, 2015.)
From paragraphs 2 and 3, we infer that Mr. Putin
