Putin to Reclaim Russian Presidency

The NYT reports that Vladimir Putin will likely return to the Russian presidency next year.

Maybe he's a dictator, I couldn't say. There seems little doubt that Russia is a fairly corrupt place and that murder is among the sanctions against anyone who gets in the way of the ruling class. Murder, but significantly, not mass murder, unlike under the former rulers of Russia.

That aside, can there be any doubt that Putin will do what is in the interests of the Russian nation? Unlike Western leaders, who disdain their own people and shout down or arrest anyone (such as Wilders) who too vocally questions the immigration and diversity mandate, Putin isn't beholden to any PC nonsense about the strength of diversity or the peacefulness of Islam.

Furthermore, Putin is personally quite the alpha, and it wouldn't be too much to say that with him, the personal is the political. His masculine style - and I say that without irony - carries over into his politics. Or maybe it's his politics carrying over into his style. Whatever, Putin eschews the feminine, emotionally laden politics of the West. While he seems to care deeply about the Russian people, you'll never hear him say, "But what about the children."

In a sane world, we would forgo the absurd, thankless, and impossible tasks of trying to turn Afghanistan and Iraq into Western doppelgangers, and revert to the older, great power form of foreign affairs. And we'd see Russia for what it is: a potential ally.