1. Putin like Gorbachev has entered an arms race with a weak economy that can’t support it. 2. Putin has gotten involved in long-running foreign policy “adventures,” Afghanistan in the case of Gorbachev who ultimately got out of that one and Putin in the case of Ukraine. 3. Putin is prepared to fund all the misfits of the world who are prepared to support him just as Soviet leaders including Gorbachev until the money ran out were prepared to back those of “’a socialist orientation.’” 4. Putin is spending enormous sums on “pompous celebrations and ‘projects of the century’ like...