‘The world’s most dangerous man’: Putin's power
In the White House, there resides a vain, bombastic, dictatorial, strange, narcisstic and unpredictable character, whom the world at large is still coming to terms with.
In the Kremlin, there is an equally vain and dictatorial incumbent — a 21st-century tsar, with the ruthlessness of Stalin.
The difference between them is that, for all his power, Donald Trump is subject to the American constitution and Congress to rein in his excesses.
Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, has few, if any of those restrictions, signs being that he has just been re-elected as president of Russia for the fourth time running.
The Russian constitution bars him from entering the race for president when his new terms ends, in 2024, but he has overcome that problem before, swapping roles with prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, to allow him run again.
Garry Kasparov, the world’s most-renowned chess master, has branded Putin “the most dangerous man in the world”.
Considering the woeful diplomatic abilities of his US counterpart, that’s a scary thought.
