Excellent question. For quite a while I've thought Pootie has a Napoleon complex. After listening to Bruce Bartlett interviewed last night about his new book where he called recent Bush/Putin meetings "bizarre" and listening to some of the details he cites to bolster his assertions, I'm now thinking that Pootie is just nuts. What I don't get is Pootie's 70% approval rating.....
IMO, the Russian populace mistakes Putins audacious leadership as standing up to the west, as if he were a real statesman. Russia has taken it’s lumps over the last few decades. I don’t mind Russia asserting some international opinions, but it would be nice if they were in Russia’s best interests. This dynamic, those folks don’t seem to understand.
Putin has developed some sort of complex, that’s for sure.