THE TSAR WHO THRIVES IN CHAOS

ONE popular anecdote about Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin oft-repeated by Russia-obsessed foreign commentators trying to analyse the mindset of the enigmatic leader is about a ‘cornered rat’.

- T K VINEETH

The story, narrated as saying by Putin himself in the book ‘First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia’s President’, illustrates how a young Putin once tried to drive away a big rat at his Leningrad apartment. With a stick in hand, he chased the rodent into a corner. But the playful hunt turned ugly as the rat, nowhere to go but back, suddenly leapt at its tormentor. Now, it was the turn of the young boy, then a lean lad with weak physique, to run for his life. The childhood incident apparently taught Putin a lifelong lesson about the ferocity of something, or someone, cornered.

In the current context where Putin, now 73, leaves no impression that he is in a hurry to end the Russia-Ukraine war despite the Western sanctions to isolate Moscow, the debate among commentators is whether he does what he does because he feels cornered or he’s trying to corner the West.

Putin’s just-concluded visit to India for the annual India-Russia summit, which saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi break diplomatic protocol to go to the airport to receive him, gives some clues. The optics of the Putin-Modi handshake and hug spoke louder than words, conveying the message that the Russian president does have steadfast friends in his corner.