Puncturing the Myth of Putin’s Genius

IN THE WEST, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES ALIKE seem to agree that Russia has reemerged as a great power with a global reach. And in Russia itself, well-known foreign-policy experts assert that the West had best get used to their country’s resurgence.

But such appraisals, some of which tend toward alarmism, don’t hold up under the bright light of evidence. For one, Russia’s GDP is just a little larger than Spain’s—a country with a population less than a third of Russia’s. And Russia’s military budget is less than a 10th of the United States’, about a fifth of China’s, and smaller than Japan’s.

Furthermore, Russia’s foreign-policy successes have been overblown. Consider Syria. According to the standard