… Putin. How did this political matryoshka doll go from bright young spark with the world at his feet and the possibility of inaugurating a new Russian renaissance to ever-smaller, more introverted, power-hungry versions of himself, sowing mischief, death and destruction?

This man was a spy. A functionary. Yet he now holds Europe hostage. He toys with us. Every time he rattles his nuclear sabre Europe takes a step back. He has thrown hundreds of thousands of troops into the jaws of hell in Ukraine. He has bought himself a mercenary army of North Koreans.

He may have lost Syria. But he ploughs on here, there and everywhere, playing giant monopoly, that signature little cryptic smile on his poker face. He loves the game. And to give him his due, he has a big match temperament.

Now cast your mind back to the mid-noughties. Putin is in his first term in the Kremlin. Things are going, if not exactly swimmingly, well enough. Power and wealth flow to him easily, almost gratefully. Russia loves a strong leader. The fall of communism doesn’t feel like much of a triumph. Unless you’re rich. So people believe in his big talk because they want to.

He goes bareback riding – bare-chested — in Siberia. He hands out the crown jewels (gas, coal, oil, nickel contracts) to his mates. He’s the man. Naively, the West hopes capitalism, crony or otherwise, will tame the Russian bear. Democracy will follow the money. It didn’t in China.

Then things start to happen. A pattern starts to emerge. He starts to jail and kill dissidents.

…

In 2020 a referendum wipes his electoral slate clean. He can now run for two more terms. He is President for life. …

And then finally, he tackles the itch he can’t stop scratching: he writes a turgid essay about the “historical unity” of Russia and Ukraine. And not very long after that, his armies invade what he calls a Nazi hotbed, populated by a jumped-up non-people. You see where this is going.

…

In the days after Putin’s army invaded Ukraine in February 2022, almost every western oil company announced that they would stop doing business in Russia. Thirty years after arriving in post-Soviet Russia, the oil majors appeared to be abandoning one of the world’s top fossil fuel producers.

And yet, even now, even after the butchering of civilians for no other reason than wishing to choose freely how they live, the EU imports Russian fossil fuels worth €656 million – per day.

…

Putin was a villain hiding in plain sight. He roams the great vaulted hauls of St Ekaterina’s Hall in the Kremlin, distrustful of everyone, surrounded by yes-men, awkward, scheming, wishing his reality on the rest of us. And, to a certain extent, he’s succeeded.

Glory to Ukraine!