If nothing else, Vladimir Putin is a leader who paints Russia’s image with broad strokes. He overcame a KGB and Communist past to create a kind of democratic autocracy in Russia. He literally, and figuratively, restored Christianity and Orthodox churches across the land. In his spare time, Putin rides Harley Davidson bikes with the Night Wolves, Russia’s first post-Communist motorcycle club, an organization that might be the only state-sponsored political club for bikers on the planet. The Russian president rehabilitated the Russian armed forces, too, in the wake of the Afghan/Chechen debacles. More recently, Putin has unchained the bear and altered the complexion of politics and dissent in the Caucuses, Georgia, Ukraine, and now Syria. Russian pushback against NATO expansion and regime change follies is a predictable, if not understandable, response to a hapless Brussels. Why European politicians seek a fight with Russia in the middle of an Islamic migrant blitz is...(Read Full Article)