Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
Putin is not a corrupt third-world dictator looking out only for his "clan", he is a legitimate (as far as he can be) leader of the Russian state and he does ultimately act with Russian strategic interests in mind.
Correction: ... act with WHAT HE THINKS Russian strategic interests...

And he thinks this interest in Russia being a superpower.

Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
The angle that is the sticking point here, and what it might pay most to leverage, is that, as a dictator, appearances and innuendos are crucial for maintaining his own standing, and therefore his own power networks and rule, and therefore the strategic interest of a coherent and internally-stable Russia.
The strategic interest you forwarded is opposite to the one Putin has in mind. Anyway, what Putin has been doing for the last two and a half years does anything but getting him closer to a coherent and internally-stable Russia.