Why Putin Is Suddenly So Playful

[Purveyor]

By Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg News

At the Asia-Pacific summit in China, Russian President Vladimir Putin did his best to appear relaxed, even playful. As his country faces some of its biggest international challenges in the post-Soviet era, he is showing an incredible levity. There are two ways to interpret that: as a subtle attempt at intimidation, or a sign that he thinks his relationship with the West can still be repaired.

During the summit, Western leaders appeared willing to talk with Putin for only a few minutes. His three encounters with President Barack Obama lasted a total of 20 minutes; his lone meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was equally brief. Still, Putin tried to make small talk with Obama, smiled and even clapped the U.S. leader on the back. From Obama's stiff reaction, it looked as if it took him some effort not to recoil.

Then there was the slightly comic episode with Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese leader Xi Jinping: Putin threw a shawl over her shoulders, and while the Chinese first lady politely accepted it, she almost immediately handed it off to an aide. After almost 14 years in power, Putin has a good grasp of diplomatic etiquette, so the mischievous gesture must have been calculated.

Russian commentator Alexander Baunov, himself a former diplomat, called Putin's behavior "a hint at his power," as if he was saying: "You Western politicians are held back by a thousand rules and barriers because your opposition and journalists will punish you for every false step. You can't afford this, but I can. I am the independent master of an independent country, so there you are."

Putin is far from oblivious of his circumstances: threateningly low oil prices, the currency panic in Moscow, a war about to restart in Ukraine that could potentially lead to new sanctions against Russia. Still, he's having fun, and perhaps this show of unconcern is designed to look threatening.

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[Igel]

1. From what I can read ...

Unmitigated silliness on the part of the times.

All politics is ultimately local. Unfortunately, many people understand this to inexorably read, "All politics--including Putin's, Obama's, South African, Venezuelan ... is local ... TO ME!!!!" The only possible "local" to local with reference to the only entity in the universe that really matters.

It's not ethnocentrism. It's not jingoism. It's elevating the id to the status of a country with a populace, so that Putin's politics is local to the all-important divinity doing the interpreting.

Makes Stalin look like a retiring wallflower, that kind of interpretation. It's the opposite of kenosis.