Machiavellian Putin wins another six-year term

Mr Putin has won the presidential election Russia, but did so without any opposition whatsoever. His opponents were wiped out by treacherous behaviour from Putin himself and some of his close oligarchs.

Therefore, we now have to admit that if Xi Jinping of China is the world’s most powerful man, conventional wisdom puts Vladimir Putin a close second. However, the latter is more despotic, crueler, more brutal, taking into consideration last week’s attempted murder of a Russian spy and his daughter in London, the atrocities in Syria, in Afghanistan and so on....

It is perfectly true that Moscow’s in extremis intervention in Syria prevented the collapse of Syria’s brutal dictator Bashar-al-Assad, and preserved Russia’s sole foothold in the Middle East. But having put his finger in the dyke, Mr Putin cannot remove it now or Mr Assad will drown. So Putin is now stuck in the middle of multiple conflicts he cannot control – between the Assad regime and the rebels; between Turkey and the Kurds; between American-led coalition forces and Islamic State; between Israel, Syria and Iran; between Sunni and Shiite. With this cube of conflicting interests, Mr Putin has made partners on one front and adversaries on another.

Mr Putin has made his own bare-chested virility synonymous with a resurgent Russia. He seems to be playing on every chessboard, from Russia to the Middle East, from Europe to America. During a re- cent state of the nation speech, he bragged about Russia’s nuclear arsenal, with new sophisticated weapons in the works – even though his rhetoric far outpaced their technical reality.

A masterful painter of facades, Mr Putin’s meddling in foreign affairs is feeding a growing, gnawing case of indigestion. And it is masking a deep-set rot in Russia itself. His aggression and his threats are unacceptable. His low-cost, high impact meddling in Western democracies must be forcefully stopped.

NATO is now more energized than it has been in years. It’s high time this alliance acts as swiftly as possible to teach this menace a lesson. Jos Edmond Zarb Birkirkara