LONDON — In his recent State of the Nation speech, President Vladimir Putin said that "Russia's modern foreign policy is based on the principles of pragmatism, predictability and the supremacy of international law."
That seems clear-cut if you forget that recent events have shown that pragmatism overrules predictability and international law whenever it serves Putin's concept of Russia's self-interest.
Various groups among his cronies press Putin with different conceptions of where that self-interest lies. A visiting Russian scholar at Chatham House (Yury E. Fedorov) recently identified the different groups trying to bend Putin's ear. (His talk, "Boffins and Buffoons," can be found at the Chatham House Web site: www.chathamhouse.org.uk/pdf/research/rep/BP0306russia.pdf )