There will be no Cold War
... have been his most important ever —, Putin hit a markedly anti-Western tone. Partially rewriting history, he bemoaned the West’s hypocrisy, double standards, and mingling in foreign countries; this time, ‘crossing a line’, in Russia’s sphere of interest. We have a Russia-West situation; we have hostility. Yes, it looks like a new ‘Cold War’. But it won’t get to that. It can’t get to that, because there is a huge disparity in power. Russia is weaker, the West stronger than it looks. Russia is an authoritarian state dependent on energy exports, suffering from mismanagement and endemic corruption. Its massive armed forces are hard to mobilise: ...