Man in a bubble

Illustration by João Fazenda

Has Putin gone mad? Particularly when looking at his incredible blunder regarding the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine with dire ramifications for Russia and the world. His behavior's becoming a bit strange lately with emotional rantings not in character for a guy as reserved and calculating to the max just a few years ago, not to mention the sheer physical distance Putin maintains with anyone he comes in contact with. 

Vladimir Putin delivered a bitter and delusional speech from the Kremlin this week, arguing that Ukraine is not a nation and Ukrainians are not a people. His order to execute a “special military operation” came shortly afterward. The professed aim is to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” this supposedly phantasmal neighbor of forty million people, whose government is so pro-Nazi that it is led by a Jewish President who was elected with seventy percent of the vote.

Like many aging autocrats, Putin has, over time, remained himself, only more so: more resentful, more isolated, more repressive, more ruthless. He operates in an airless political environment, free of contrary counsel. His stagecraft—seating foreign visitors at the opposite end of a twenty-foot-long table, humiliating security chiefs in front of television cameras—is a blend of “Triumph of the Will” and “The Great Dictator.” But there is nothing comic in the performance of his office. As Putin spills blood across Ukraine and threatens to destabilize Europe, Russians themselves stand to lose immeasurably. The ruble and the Russian stock market have cratered. But Putin does not care. His eyes are fixed on matters far grander than the well-being of his people. He is in full command of the largest army in Europe, and, as he has reminded the world, of an immense arsenal of nuclear weapons. In his mind, this is his moment, his triumphal historical drama, and damn the cost.

Isolation to the extreme ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in Moscow on Feb. 7. (Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images)

The lasting legacy of the meeting, however, might be its aesthetics. For their discussion, Putin and Macron sat at opposite ends of a truly enormous table, a tiny floral arrangement at its center. For five hours, the two sat there in conversation, nearly 20 feet from each other, according to CNN.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Putin in Moscow on Feb. 1. (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool/AP)

Why that would be the case isn’t clear. Again, perhaps it was just an effort to solicit DNA from Macron. But that doesn’t explain why Putin and Russia would use similar distancing when meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban this month. Was Orban, too, unwilling to submit to a Russian test?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Putin in Moscow on Feb. 14. (Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/AP)

Clearly, Lavrov was not afraid of the Russian government obtaining his DNA. So why the distance? Perhaps it was born of urgency, a need to talk with Lavrov without waiting for test results.

Putin chairs a Security Council meeting at the Kremlin on Feb. 21. (Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/AP)

That photo also shows that Putin is, in fact, the center of the bubble. There’s some distancing between the attendees (who one would assume have been vaccinated, given their government roles and Russia’s pride in its own vaccine). But all are kept at a significant distance from the president himself, even in that cavernous space.

There's something happening here

But what it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop

Children, what's that sound?

Everybody look, what's going down?

For What it's Worth - Buffalo Sprinfield