Well your post veered from the sublime to the ridiculous. The sublime was the article which made a lot of good points, especially about the divisions in Putin's government and the differing views on how to recapture some international clout.
The ridiculous was your assessment of it and total misunderstanding of some of the points the author was trying to make. I don't know if there are any Russians on the forum, I'm guessing not, but I've worked in Russia on 2 occasions, once last year for 4 months and the year before for 3, so I think I have some authority in saying your waay off.
Russia is a strange place and the people have a self destructive streak that goes back centuries. They're like Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment; half the time feeling destitute and sorry for themselves and then conversely acting brazen, rising up and taking action, which is often erroneous. Russians can be stubborn, argumentative, on the surface humourless and sometimes a bit intimidating but get underneath the surface and they can be friendly, very generous, intelligent and very funny (usually after a drink or two).
Russians don't like the west much but paradoxically aspire to be like them. They don't like Bush, think Blair is an idiot, don't particularly like China but see certain advantages to being close to them (they like Maggie Thatcher though ). Putin is well liked among the general populace (In the big cities at least, not sure about the countryside), but not among the oligarchs who have been left out in the political cold by Putin after initially being encouraged. A coup would be possible but I can't see who could possibly pull it off successfully and besides most are just concerned with amassing small fortunes and don't have the stomach for intrigue. The big cities are awash with corruption, even the local government and police force but a blind eye is turned to all this cos the Kremlin is always thinking of the big idea. Only trouble is big ideas rarely work especially in a country as big as Russia. They are always trying to jump across the river, ignoring the stepping stones.
What I'm trying to say is that all this jockeying for political position, posturing, taunting and making of alliances to get up the wests nose is all part of the Russian psyche. They like to appear tough, the Russian populace like their leaders to be tough and it gets to them that they don't have the international might they once had, however flimsy that actually was under the surface. What all this doesn't mean is that Russia will drop the bomb or some other ridiculous suggestion because with all their shortcomings they are not stupid and they realise they live in a different world to during the cold war. Different countries play the political game differently - Russia has always played it aggressively and so have the US and that's why there has always been friction.
I think there are more worrying international concerns than Russia.
I also was confused by the King of the North insinuation. Do you still buy into that stuff? If so it seems like you still haven't shaken off the org brain washing especially with your penchant for conspiracy theories and apocolyptic convictions.
