, Columnist
Putin Spins a Tale of Russian Humiliation
His message is directed at countries in the developing world. It's an offer to back them if they buck U.S. dominance.
Axis upheaval.
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For years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been building a narrative of a Russia that was wronged and humiliated by the U.S. until it decided to push back. In his annual major foreign policy speech, to the Valdai International Discussion Club, this narrative took the form of a pitch for a new Russia-centered axis of power that will in large part define the geopolitical battles of Putin's remaining time in office.
In the 1990s, the storyline goes, Russia opened itself up trustingly to the West, which immediately took advantage of it. As Putin put it this year, "The biggest mistake our country made was that we put too much trust in you; and your mistake was that you saw this trust as weakness and abused it."