Western views of Russian leaders have turned in a predictable cycle for decades. First there is hope: a new man in the Kremlin may be easier to deal with and make his country a better neighbour. Then there is disillusion: the original expectations are not met, and the wrong things are changing. Then comes fear: either the man himself is turning nasty, or he proves to be ineffective. In each case, the dark forces stop lurking and start looming. Then the new man comes, and hope springs again. With Vladimir Putin, the cycle has reached its third point. The cheerleaders for Russia who had hoped that the president augured a new era of law-abiding prosperity have largely gone quiet. The "forget Russia" notion, that the world's largest country by size, with the worst-supervised nuclear arsenal, could be left to stew, has few takers. The question that remains is whether the misdeeds of the Russian state, at home and abroad, are because of Mr Putin or despite him.
展开▼
