Putin is his own worst enemy. He let's his emotions get the best of him.
Only people on this forum and common sheep believe that country leaders are being driven by emotions. You feel rage against muslims because of terrorist attacks in France/USA and demand a crusade. Elite sees that as an opportunity to make more money by showing off their new military tech, later to sell it to same people they bombed.
Putin is not stupid and he certainly isn't driven by emotions. I doubt he has any left. Dude's a former KGB spy, his actions are calculated as they get.
https://www.rt.com/business/iraq-russia-oil-plan-186/ Russia is not excluded from any economic ventures, they just pretend the system is rigged against them so they can politicize everything for publicity and propaganda, because like you said they want to economically "influence" others. The truth is Russia would be a very boring country without some kind of ideological enemy, they know as well as we do it would be mutual suicide and pointless to start a war. Whenever there is any kind of disagreement the media brings up Cold War stigmas on both sides for publicity, it's as simple as that.
Comparing the US going full vigilante on countries who don't play by the rules does not compare to the hypocrisy of Russia taking land from the Ukraine forcibly, with no negotiations, and then directly stepping in to the do the dirty work and protect the sovereignty of a dictator who has been proven to have committed warcrimes against his own. Every single example you gave on your list only tells one side of the story or is blatantly made up bullshit propaganda from Chumpsky.
Fully agree that he is populist leader who created boogieman he's supposed to fight again and save his people. But isn't the same situation in USA? Isn't socialism your boogieman? You openly criticize Scandinavian countries because they implemented some socialist measures, even thought they are doing mighty fine. They picked the best from capitalism and socialism. But if you're American you can't even think about socialist measures, because that is a dirty word.
Now you have that clown Trump who is of same political mold as Putin, a populist scumbag. He's telling you it's about time to make America great again. Please enlighten me, when did America stopped being great? Maybe it has something with others catching up a bit, you know? Like in sport. Even Africans can play football these days. That doesn't mean Germany aren't the best at the game. But difference is smaller than ever.
