A New Russian Empire?

Russian President Putin. © RIA Novosti. Sergey Guneev

Russia’s Empire Strikes Back -- Anne Applebaum, Slate

Vladimir Putin’s empire-building has little to do with Russia’s interests. It’s all about what’s good for him and his cronies.

"Right makes might, and not the other way around," President Obama said in the Rose Garden a few weeks ago. We all know what he meant: In this age of soft power, great countries can win friends not through the use of brute force but through their books and movies, their sophisticated economies, their technological innovations, and, above all, through their attractive and inspiring national ideals.

Maybe that's true, some of the time. But for those who find soft power difficult to wield, hard power is still available. Indeed, in the very same week that the American president made his Rose Garden speech, events on the other side of the globe were proving that might certainly can make right. Even while the world's attention was fixed on Russian-American diplomacy in Syria, back home Russian President Vladimir Putin was pulling off a much quieter but potentially more significant diplomatic coup.

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My Comment: As I have remarked on many occasions in this blog .... President Obama's focus has always been on transforming America. As for Russian President Putin .... his focus has always been on reconstituting much of the former Soviet Union .... and as the above analysis concludes .... at the moment he is doing a very good job at it.