(April 16, 2014 at 4:07 pm)sven Wrote:(April 16, 2014 at 4:03 pm)Chuck Wrote: Putin is not a mad dog. He is a very cool, measured and purposeful, if ruthless, dog who never takes his eyes off the ball.You think he's that smart?
In fact I think he is cool and cunning enough to use the mad dog image western propaganda created of him against the west, and exploit the fact that such an image makes the population in west fearful of confronting a nuclear armed Russia led by him.
The more the west play up the image of a bogeymen Putin building back up the Soviet Empire and existentially threatening NATO allies Poland and Baltic republics, the more the memory of Soviet world-ending nuclear arsenal would inhibit western action.
Well he got away with annexing Crimea. I'll give you that one.
He is smart, but not exceptionally smart. But he has exceptionally favorable conditions that keeps him focused and shields him from distractions. He is not answerable to popular opinions. He has firm control over popular opinions. He is not beholden to election cycles. He probably has no challengers from his own party.
So he is able to set real goals and persist for long time, and deploy a wider variety of options, to reach them compate to the leader of any other major power.
