Winston Churchill famously called Russia "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Is the same true of Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia with an increasingly tight fist since 1999?
I don't think so.
Early in his tenure, he waged a ferocious war against separatists in Chechnya. Russian forces razed Grozny, the capital, and killed as many as 100,000 Chechens in this small Muslim land first conquered by Russian imperialists in the Caucasian War of the 19th century.
President Clinton had threatened that Russia would "pay a heavy price" for its brutality. But no bill collectors ever came knocking on Mr. Putin's door.
President George W. Bush met Mr. Putin in 2001 and found him "very straightforward and trustworthy." That appraisal did not age well.
Over the years that followed, Mr. Putin shaped his public image with displays of manly strength: riding horses bare-chested, playing hockey against professionals (whom he, of course, bested), and giving martial arts demonstrations.
Meanwhile, a long list of his enemies, rivals, and critics suffered untimely deaths. A few examples:
In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who had accused the Kremlin of corruption, took tea at a London hotel. The tea had been spiked with polonium-210, a radioactive substance. He died three weeks later.
That same year, Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative reporter covering Russian atrocities in Chechnya, was shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment house.
In 2009, Sergei Magnitsky, a young lawyer who uncovered Russian government corruption while working for investor Bill Browder, died after 358 days in a Moscow prison. He hadn't yet been charged with any crime.
In 2015, Boris Nemtsov, a prominent Russian politician who advocated for democracy and human rights, was shot and killed near the Kremlin.
In 2020, Alexei Navalny, a popular Russian opposition leader, was poisoned by Novichok, a nerve agent. His supporters ferried him to Germany where he received medical treatment and recovered. He returned to Russia, was immediately imprisoned and died – or was killed – in 2024.
Shall I go on?
I've long argued that Mr. Putin regards himself as a tsar whose mission is to restore the Russian empire.
In 2008, his troops invaded Georgia, an independent nation-state that had been a Russian and, later, Soviet possession. A 16-day war ended with Russian troops occupying the Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In 2009 President Obama decided to forgive and forget this aggression. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (who still holds that job) with a red button labeled "reset" – the word misspelled in Russian. That elicited laughter all around.
In 2014, Mr. Putin invaded and annexed the Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and initiated a separatist insurgency in the Donbas region. In response, Russia was expelled from the G8, and some sanctions were imposed. Mr. Putin endured these punishments with equanimity.
During the first Trump administration Mr. Putin invaded no other countries.
In August 2021, President Biden capitulated to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Not just coincidently, Comrade (as the Soviets used to say) six months later Mr. Putin's tanks rolled toward Kyiv.
His goal was and remains the annihilation of Ukraine's independence and even its cultural identity.
In part, I think, he's outraged that most Ukrainians regard themselves as a separate nationality rather than as "Little Russians," are intent on establishing a democracy, and want to ally with the West rather than take orders from the Kremlin.
But most importantly, Mr. Putin wants more Russian lands and more Russian subjects. During this war, he has abducted an estimated 20,000 Ukrainian children whom he is brainwashing to identify as Russians.
Russia's population was estimated at 144 million in 2023. Ukraine would add another 38 million, including a significant number with combat experience who – with a Russian bayonet pressed against their backs – may have no option other than to march on NATO nations.
There is an ideology underlying all this. Alexander Dugin has been called Mr. Putin's "brain" and his "Rasputin." A political philosopher, Mr. Dugin regards Russia as a nation of Eurasia – a civilization that he sees as in mortal conflict with the West.
Mr. Dugin objects to Americans promoting their values – e.g., freedom, individual rights, tolerance, self-determination – as international norms and "universal laws."
Strategic alliances with other anti-Western Eurasian regimes, he believes, is key to diminishing American power and global preeminence. He's written: "The American empire should be destroyed."
This is the basis on which Mr. Putin has made common cause with Chinese Communists, Iranian jihadis, and the dynastic dictator of North Korea. The members of this axis all seek to conquer neighboring lands, displace American global leadership, and establish a new and despotic international order.
Though recent polls indicate that more than 80% of Americans have a negative opinion of Mr. Putin, there are exceptions.
American actor Steven Seagal has taken Russian citizenship. So has French actor Gérard Depardieu.
Mr. Putin has established a "Welcome to Russia" program and, last August, signed a decree allowing foreign citizens to apply for temporary residency in the country if they oppose the "destructive neoliberal ideological agenda" of their homelands and share "traditional Russian spiritual and moral values."
According to Russian authorities, 4,676 Westerners have immigrated to Russia since 2022. Among them are said to be 227 U.S. citizens.
I'll conclude with this: As President Trump attempts to negotiate a halt to Russia's war against Ukraine, it's not unreasonable for him to show respect for Mr. Putin (as he has been) if he believes that will make Mr. Putin more likely to agree to concessions.
But it's imperative that President Trump harbor no illusions about Mr. Putin – about his character, ambitions, ideology, and his abiding hatred for American greatness.