Mad Dogs and...
Putin's Lair and the mad dog himself... An anecdote from Vladimir Putin's youth [quoted in the FT Weekend Feb 26/27] about a huge rat he had cornered, going on the offensive itself, cemented in his mind a life lesson he keeps to this day - "Everyone should keep this in mind. You should never drive anyone into a corner". It seems that he has not heeded his own youthful advice in the case of his invasion of Ukraine. He has indeed backed Ukraine into a corner, and they have gone on the offensive, rather than turning up their toes as Putin must have expected. His blitzkrieg has failed to take the immediate grip on the country he imagined, meeting fierce resistance from the Ukrainian military and its citizenry. Even though the border talks between the two sides have broken down without agreement today, the financial and political pressure being heaped on Russia is starting to tell, with the rouble tanking against all the major world currencies, and Russian billionaires