Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on foreign-language propaganda, all that President Vladimir Putin has achieved outside Russia is the status of a Bond movie villain. He may enjoy it, especially since there's no 007 in sight to tackle him, but his variety of pop stardom is growing into a problem for his country: He is seen as a bigger threat to the West than his actions warrant.

A fresh survey of European and U.S. politicians and policy wonks by the website Politico revealed that Putin is seen as by far the biggest threat facing Europe and its relationship with the United States.

Brexit? Grexit? Economic problems? A million migrants waiting in Libya to cross the Mediterranean into Europe, or the extremist parties that would have these migrants drown rather than resettled? Are these threats really less deadly than one rather short Russian man?