Putin to Obama: 'Let's See What You Got, Player'

The Financial Times' international affairs editor Quentin Peel pulls together the pieces of Putin and Medvedev's recent foreign policy surge.

'First, they leaked details of naval and air bases to be established on the shores of the Black Sea in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia, whose independence is recognised by Moscow alone. Then they signed an air defence treaty with the former Soviet republic of Belarus, apparently paving the way for an anti-missile defence system to counter one planned by the previous US administration across the border in Poland. Moscow appears to have persuaded the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan to oust the US from its air base at Manas, outside Bishkek, in exchange for $2bn (€1.6bn, £1.4bn) in loans, and $150m in financial aid.'

That all amounts to quite a few moves on the great chess board. However this is a common trend amongst post-Soviet and pseudo-democratic states; the external projection of strength is designed to distract the gaze from internal weakness.