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 in 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 in 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 in 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.)
In the passage, “bleakly” (line 8) means
