"Vladimir Putin tries his hardest to look like a world statesman" is a story on today's Russian politics published in this week's print edition of the Economist.
"IN RECENT years Vladimir Putin has seemed disengaged, even out of touch, when addressing the annual meeting of the Valdai discussion club of mostly foreign Russia-watchers. Yet when the Russian president spoke to the group’s tenth gathering on September 19th, he was bouncing with confidence and even hinting that he might run for a fourth term in 2018. The reason is clear enough: he is buoyed by Russia’s diplomatic success in seeing off Western intervention in Syria," the article reads.
"In fact, the Russians are being careful not to crow too much over the deal to get Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, to give up chemical weapons. They know it will be hard to enforce and will take time, which is why they have now offered troops to help," the author writes.
"The Russians pillory the UN weapons inspectors’ report for seeming to blame the Assad regime for using chemical weapons; they say Syrian rebels earlier used chemical weapons themselves. Yet what has cheered the Kremlin most is not saving Mr Assad from Western missiles—Mr Lavrov said Russian influence over Mr Assad is limited—but the sight of Russia being taken seriously once more," the article states.
"A new Russian assertiveness was also evident in Mr Putin’s comments on Ukraine and other ex-Soviet neighbours. He repeated old complaints about the West’s double-dealing when it reneged on promises made to Mikhail Gorbachev not to expand NATO. He denied threatening any country to force it to join his preferred Eurasian customs union instead of signing an association agreement with the European Union," the article reads.
