Vladimir Putin's Terrific, Triumphant, All Good, Totally Badass Year
By David Rothkopf April 17, 2014
Admit it. You wish you were Vladimir Putin right now. Enemies fear him. Allies are grateful to him. Women are drawn to him. Jimmy Fallon imitates him. Even Edward Snowden wants to be his video buddy. To paraphrase that great geopolitical analyst Alicia Keys, this guy is on fire. Oh sure, his country's economy is in the tank and sinking fast. But what's that to a man whose personal fortune is estimated in the billions? (That KGB pension plan rocks.)
Yes, Barack Obama thinks that Putin is hurting Russia with his Ukrainian antics. But the Russian people -- the constituents who would be directly responsible for electing him president if anybody believed Russia were actually a democracy -- are giving him approval ratings Obama would kill for. And the deal the West and the Russians cut with Ukraine on April 17 to ease tensions seems likely to take relieve some of the East-West tensions, leaving Putin with much of what he wanted.
Of course, winning Crimea brings with it a ton of challenges given that the region is an economic basket case and building the infrastructure to connect it to Russia will cost billions of dollars. But not only was the annexation an emotional pick-me-up for a Motherland that has been down in the dumps for a generation, but it took little more than Putin raising one of his intimidating Bond-villain eyebrows to get it. And the penalties the finger-wagging West has imposed upon him hardly even qualify as "surgical" sanctions -- they were more like pinpricks. (New ad slogan for the West: "The Atlantic Alliance -- blazing new trails in foreign policy acupuncture."
The list of Putin's recent triumphs is a long one. And it would be even longer, I suspect, if we knew every source of cash that was flowing into every secret bank account he has. (By that I mean allegedly has. Might have. If he were corruptly siphoning off vast amounts of his struggling nation's national patrimony.) But even so, it's a long list of wins. And there is every reason to assume that by the end of his current annus mirabilis it will be even longer.
Not only do we have the bloodless annexation of Crimea and the political boost at home associated with it, the guy's divorce went through -- and according to reports he has been involved with a Russian rhythmic gymnast ever since. Then there was Sochi, which packs of wild dogs and plumbing problems aside, went pretty darn well for the host and Russian athletes. Prior to all that, there was the deftly played Russian gambit to forestall America's attack on its Syrian ally and the gains in international clout associated with Russia's central role in the Iran nuclear negotiations. Even if Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov can't always get his calls answered in the Kremlin, and even if some in the U.S. government have been known to call him "the slug" (which is probably not a compliment, even in Moscow), Russian diplomacy is more globally important today than it has been at any time in the past two decades. And then of course, there was Snowden, whose fortuitous landing in Moscow offered Putin not simply just a way to tweak the West. It was a one-two punch: giving refuge to a man many see as a hero for revealing American surveillance abuses while at the same time almost certainly giving Moscow's intelligence agencies access to the treasure trove lurking in Snowden's hard-drives.
Read more at: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/04/17/vladimir_putin_s_terrific_triumphant_all_good_totally_badass_year_russia_ukraine
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My apologies to the men of DU - this is objectification of men - but it's the only way to make my point. 
Women are drawn to him.
No way.
This Russian? Hell yes!
But Putin? No waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
My apologies again for the objectification of men to the men of DU - but it had to be written.
John Kerry! 
Thanks for for the Friday happy thoughts !
