Tsar Is Born

Vladimir Putin has crushed dissent at home in Russia and has now captured a portion of a neighbor nation. The question is not if Russia could be regarded as a threat as it was during the Soviet era, as it obviously is a real and growing menace, but whether Putin will play the enlightened despot as in a Peter the Great or the brutal tyrant as in Ivan the Terrible. The hedge against the evil impulse of certain world leaders has been the strength of those ready to rise to oppose them, which within Russia and among the leaders of other nations who could challenge Putin's aggressive ambitions, is sorely lacking. No Churchill is rising to defend the existing order or indeed, civilization itself. Putin has recognized the lack of will of the empty suits pretending to seats of power and is taking full advantage of their weakness.