Although Vladimir Putin's annual state-of-the-union addresses are always occasions for bluster and saber-rattling, this year's over-the-top display fell into a category of its own. Fortunately, it is now obvious that the Russian president's words signify nothing.
WARSAW – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent annual address on the state of his country was so ostentatiously threatening as to sound reassuring. Not only did he forbid the West from crossing red lines; he announced that he himself would determine where those lines are. He did not specify whether he would inform anyone else – as if it had always been the Creator, not politicians, marking red lines in the past.
WARSAW – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent annual address on the state of his country was so ostentatiously threatening as to sound reassuring. Not only did he forbid the West from crossing red lines; he announced that he himself would determine where those lines are. He did not specify whether he would inform anyone else – as if it had always been the Creator, not politicians, marking red lines in the past.