Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: Strongman or sucker?

First, I don’t view Russian President Vladimir Putin as a hero or victim, but as a pawn. Western intelligence agencies puppeteered Putin into invading Ukraine.

So, how did KGB Putin get outplayed by the West?

Sure, Putin once lived and breathed spy vs. spy, but he has been a politician in charge of a world power for the last 20 years. Politics attracts ass kissers, inflates one’s self worth, and gets people believing the caricature the world sees them as.

For Putin, it’s the strongman.

While holding power with the KGB strongman mystique, the one thing Putin could not afford was to look weak.

The Western intel made Putin stronger by installing the sock puppet Joe Biden, having the sock puppet kill the Keystone Pipeline (enriching Putin and Russia) and letting the sock puppet bungle the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Putin, with billions in energy profits, saw these odd policy measures as a sign of feeble incompetence and decided the time to challenge NATO’s eastward expansion had arrived. I believe his first move was to bluff.

But the trap had been laid.

Putin brought his military to Ukraine’s doorstep for some saber rattling. That was not new, but the response from the West was.