The Incredible Shrinking Putin

Looking more like the wheelchair-bound Stephen Hawking than the dictatorial, KGB strongman who rules Russia with a Soviet-style Iron fist, Vladimir Putin sat compressed like a deflated rubber ducky as he met with President Donald Trump in Hamburg at the G-20 meeting on Friday.

Putin’s eyes were glued to the carpet, his features were grim and he appeared unable to even offer the trace of a smile as he dealt with America’s wealthy, self-made and personally successful president.

Perhaps Putin’s appearance and visage would be better compared with a Russian nesting doll, for it seemed that Putin was trying to disappear into himself instead of face the reality of a Donald Trump, who was prepared to take no crap from Putin, and who is reported to have demanded why Russia insists on attacking America’s computer systems.

Putin’s appearance was quite different on the occasions when he met with President Barack Obama.

In those meetings, Putin was the dominant male in the room, and he strutted and swaggered across the floor and sat militantly upright in his chair as the weak-kneed Obama tried to be just an aw-shucks homey who wanted to be Putin’s best man-friend.

One must not forget the open mic that recorded Obama begging the Russian Prime Minister to ask Putin to give him more time to get re-elected so he could better serve Putin’s demands to remove the defensive weapons that past administrations had located on Russia’s borders.

It’s quite revealing when we see world leaders who are supposed to be feared the most, and we find that they are half-pint twerps like Putin with only his steely, insane eyes with which to intimidate someone in person, and relies on the Russian army to invade defenseless nations like Ukraine in order to prove how tough he is.