People find it difficult to place Vladimir Putin. Some dismiss him as little better than a gangster. They demonise the ex-KGB officer who wants to rebuild the Russian military and restore the Soviet Union to its former borders or beyond, while flouting his country’s laws and constitution, and engaging in brutal repression at home. This Putin, they believe, is determined to undermine our democratic way of life. In 2017 the US defence secretary called Putin’s Russia the “principal threat” to the US, which America should be “ready to confront”.
In this age of spreading populism, others – including the US president, some people in Italy, France and Britain, and even politicians in eastern Europe whose countries escaped from Soviet domination only 30 years ago – admire Putin as a strong leader for his success in restoring his country’s prosperity, military power and international standing since the humiliations of the 1990s.
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