, Columnist
Vladimir Putin Is Tempting Fate
From massing Russian forces at the Ukraine border to jailing his loudest critic, a more repressive Kremlin is making risky choices that may backfire.
Master of all he surveys.
Photographer: Alexey Druzhinin/AFP via Getty Images
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In politics, as in sport, some miscues can be corrected or overcome. But not all of them, even for the world’s most iron-fisted rulers. Whether borne of hubris or misreading the situation, slip-ups tend to increase as regimes age and the consequences can be unpredictable.
Could this be the moment Vladimir Putin opens himself up to unforced errors of the authority-threatening kind?