Putin now turns his back away from fighting the bigger boys in the playground who are taking away his friend's pocket money. He has a land grab in the bag, Crimea, where he failed in Georgia before and would fail in south east ukraine if that had been instigated. Now he turns his back on the west, and says he cant be bothered to fight, he is off home to his own boxing ring which is better anyway.
Now he plays again the only trump card he has, the nationalist card of the great bear, the independent, self centered ursula major. But this is all the former KGB officer and buearocrat has to play, that and bashing gay people. It makes him popular amongst the religious, the nationalist and the narrow minded which make up the moral majority it seems at the former USSRs now shrunken ballot box.
His latest stance will however not encourage or even allow the flow of inward investment and intellectual property, and it will slow and reverse trade agreements and willingness to trade over this new Russian iron curtain.
In reality maybe he is playing just more hipocrisy, by being seen to be tough now, while later behind the scenes rebuilding bridges and then presenting Russia again in a few years time as open-for-business to the west.
I expect to see a round of renationalisations of successful foreign companies' russian assets, even brand names, and then redistribution to the oligarchs who have been feeling the pinch over Ukraine.
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