Putin, el Principe

Vladimir Putin has once more proved to be the quintessential "Prince", in Machiavellian reading. First, he fired some acid remarks at the Munich Security conference, accusing the US for having "overstepped its borders in all spheres - economic, political and humanitarian, and imposed itself on other states." According to the (mildly said) authoritarian Russian president, the US has gone "from one conflict to another without achieving a fully-fledged solution to any of them".

His rhetorics were mainly aimed as an image-boost before his current visit to the Middle East. Coincidentally this visit took place just in US-allied countries: Saudia Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.

It's a power-game, of course. And on the rising anti-American wave, Putin hopes to acquire even more power through his oil and gas-deals. Smart move, Prince.