The humbling of Vladimir Putin

The last pretence of Vladimir Putin to be, as he imagines, one of his nation's historic rulers was stripped away on June 24th. A band of armed mercenaries swept through his country almost unopposed, covering some 750km (470 miles) in a single day, seizing control of two big cities and getting to within 200km of Moscow before withdrawing unharmed. Mr Putin long ago failed as a reformer, having presided over ever-deepening corruption and economic stagnation and unable to make Russia anything more than a purveyor of hydrocarbons just as the age of oil and gas is coming to an end….