Why Putin is winning the new Cold War | Tehelka.com
There are 7.2 billion people on this planet but the United States
fears only one man — Vladimir Putin. That’s because on virtually every
front of the new Cold War, the Russian president is walloping the
collective challenge of the West. Fear can make you do strange things —
for the second year running, Forbes magazine has named Putin as the
world’s most powerful person.
It is said about the Russians that they take a long time to saddle
their horses, but they ride awfully fast. After patiently nursing the
collapsed Russian economy back to health from 1999 to 2007, Putin
started pushing back against the western encirclement of his country. In
Syria, Crimea and Ukraine, the West has faced humiliating setbacks and
melted away at his approach. In the high-stakes game of energy, it will
be Russian — not western — pipelines that will dominate the Eurasian
landmass.
But instead of scorekeeping, a more instructive exercise would be to
try and understand how Putin has managed to keep Russia ahead in the
game.
Mat finish If history has taught us anything, it is that Russia has a habit of grinding down its enemies
