MOSCOW: For years he played the part of the frosty pragmatist, doggedly set on restoring pride and power to a once-great superpower. Then, on February 27, 2014, President Vladimir Putin went rogue.
The decision to send unidentified soldiers into Ukraine's Crimean peninsula leading to its annexation by Russia was far more than an act of aggression against a recalcitrant neighbour.
It marked a direct assault on the foundations of an international system that has largely held since the end of World War II -- reviving the idea of territorial conquest that most had consigned to the historical dustbin.
Putin upended the global rules with considerable chutzpah, sowing just enough uncertainty to keep the world unsure of his intentions or his next move -- or whether he had even done anything wrong in the first place.
Like the judo master he is, Putin used the West's rhetoric of human rights and self-determination against it, deploying a barrage of propaganda first to deny the invasion and then to paint it as a rescue operation to save Crimea from the "fascist junta" that had come to power in Ukraine.
His brazen denials of the facts on the ground caught the world off-guard, but after a decade of controversial interventions in the Middle East it was the West's objections that sounded hypocritical.
The response at home was overwhelming. Putin's approval ratings soared to 90 percent as he oversaw an outpouring of nationalistic pride long buried under the humiliation of the Cold War's conclusion.
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