To balance things out, I have to say that I agree with some points stated by mr. Putin. Since the Cold War ended, USA and its allies have been doing a lot of good things - and also a lot of bad things without fear of getting punished or sanctioned by the international community. USA has been acting as if it was the only powerful regime in the world, allowed to do almost anything it wants to do, just because the others are too weak or too afraid to resist.

That is what Putin has said, and I agree with that. But then, the next step in Putin's logic seems to be that "Russia is no more weak, now Russia is strong again, so others should be afraid of Russia's military power. And therefore Russia should be allowed to do some bad things on it's backyard, regaining lost territory, expanding the empire." - And I disagree with this line of thinking. I'd admire Russian leadership a lot more if they had the balls to show some love - being strong enough to question western power politics, but doing it with wisdom, showing an alternative example of a better way of doing global politics. Alas, mr. Putin has not been presenting any new alternatives, instead he is just repeating the same old strategy with just modernized tactics.

Oh well, oh well. Calm down, bullies! Lower your arms, respect the human rights! Crimes of war and acts of torture should be inspected and sanctioned by a netural international court - regardless of who did the crimes. Yeah, in an ideal world - but I'm afraid that in real world people just don't trust any international bodies being "neutral". Just like in USA many people find it hard to believe that local police forces and courts are neutral and equal - and there are good reasons for that distrust.

So, that's why I think things like trust, love and wisdom are the essential building blocks of any functional society - be it local or global.