Replies

The way to manage the Putin file is keep your mouth shut, minimize the consequences, and wait for the (man) to pass, then deal with the next (man) in the office, try to make friends and lower tensions.

Putin has a personality type that is easy to diagnose, push him a bit and he’ll push back harder. And he has nukes, and the sort of military that only has to be on its B- game to do a lot of harm.

Reagan’s skill with Gorbachev will only be fully appreciated centuries from now when every other approach can be compared. Of course Gorbachev was not Putin. But we threw away all the good will we had with Russia around 2003 or so, over Syria and other things we got totally wrong.

Now we’re trying to force Russia to like rainbow crosswalks.

We are not smart. That doesn’t mean we deserve to die in a nuclear holocaust. Equally, RDS seems like a very capable man in his element, which apparently is not geopolitics at this point in time.