All's Well at the Kremlin

"As for palace coups, calm down. We don't have palaces, therefore, we cannot have a palace coup. We have the Kremlin official residence, it's well-protected, and this is also a factor of our state stability."
"Maybe our bear should stop chasing piglets through the forest and sit calmly eating berries and honey. Maybe [then] they will leave the bear in peace? No, they won't leave him. They will always try to chain him up. And as soon as he is chained up, they will tear out his teeth and claws."
"The relatives of people who carry out terrorist attacks know about it in the majority of cases. But that does not give anyone, including the leader of Chechnya, the right to carry out prejudicial punishments [destroying family homes]."
"A friend of mine from Europe, a big boss, asked me recently, 'Do you have love?; I replied, 'Meaning what?'  'Well, do you love someone?' I said, 'Well, yes.' 'And does someone love you?' I said, 'Yes'.
Russian President Vladimir Putin

Well, thank heavens that Vladimir Putin has found love. He has also found himself in a hard place, but he's a tough bear, and he plans to tough it out. Starting with the refusal to back down from the crisis in Ukraine; hardly likely he would offer to return Crimea to Ukraine, since that little annexation coup alone accounts for a good proportion of the 80% approval rate he enjoys among the Russian electorate. He's got love from that source, as well.

How long that source of love remains is yet to be seen. But their president has promised the Russian people that they will have to buckle down for no more than two years, before the economy turns around and all is rosy once again. And he hasn't hesitated to point out the reason for Russia's problems: "They are winners [United States and Europe], they are an empire now and the rest are vassals and have to be driven into a corner", he explained.

Which neatly sums up in that brief explanation just what the Russian Federation is all about; an empire in temporary decline, former vassals trembling at the very thought of a future, re-empowered Russia. From the sublime to the ridiculous; the annual press conference going from fierce to maudlin. But Russians can be assured as long as their president has love, all will be solved.

No one has asked for the details involved in hauling Russia out of its economic decline; after all, Crimea is off limits, and the Sochi Winter Games represented an international triumph of a party, showing that Russia had arrived. It's just that since its arrival it has more or less lost its way and it could sure use that $60-billion cost of the party as a stop-gap while the ruble continues to shrink its value and the price of a barrel of oil declines even further.

As for a palace coup; that depends, there are so many palaces, none of which evidently officially exist, but they are there, nonetheless. Starting with Mr. Putin's own megamonster of a palatial mansion befitting his status as a rich, very rich man; riches somehow mysteriously acquired throughout the course of his presidency/prime-minstership/presidency, etc.

If his wealth were added back-to-back with that of his cronies Russia might hobble by.

ruleaks/Wikimedia Commons

Of course the West is responsible for the conflict in Ukraine; nothing to do with Russia. Although when a Ukrainian journalist had the unmitigated gall and fearlessness to ask how many Russian soldiers had died fighting in Ukraine, and what had Mr. Putin to say to their mothers, he denied the presence of any Russian military supporting eastern Ukraine separatists.

Any Russians who might be in that particular geography were strictly volunteers, responding to "a call of the heart", indomitable patriots, not young Russian military men with no option but to grimly respond to orders to present themselves to fight alongside the ethnic Russian Ukrainian secessionists, risking life and limb to their mothers' sorrow, as their coffins are delivered quietly back home.

NATO expansionism in eastern Europe represents an international travesty, the slow and steady building of a new "virtual" Berlin Wall. As for Russia's bear's teeth and claws; read between the lines, folks. The bear's teeth are equated with Russia's nuclear weapons. They do have that arsenal, remember? And they most certainly know how they're to be used; as threats, of course, nothing more.