It's not often that one hears a truly historic speech. Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the Russian parliament calling for the acceptance of Crimea as a Russian region was one.
It heralded Russia's unabashed resurgence as an unscrupulous, unpredictable player in a world where lies, half-truths, bad precedents and raw might have replaced any kind of legal framework. Though such a world may have lived previously only in Putin's head, it is now as real as Russia's annexation of Crimea.
It was a truly regal speech. Speaking in a Kremlin hall full of imperial splendor, flanked by no fewer than six Russian tricolors and with a double-headed eagle carved from marble soaring above his head, Putin was the benevolent czar, carrying different messages to his good subjects, his loyal allies and his enemies, domestic and external. His emotional range was Shakespearean in its breadth: from wrenching pain at past hurts to the unconcealed triumph of present victory. Not even the colloquialisms of a working-class Leningrad boy detracted from the majesty of the 46-minute performance, interrupted with applause at least 32 times.