Vlad’s at it again. Floating plans for a new ‘Eurasian Union’, Putin has given the West a telling new glimpse at the kind of foreign policy it ought to expect when, as expected, Dmitri Medvedev returns the presidency in March.

It’s a signal we’d best not ignore. The geopolitical landscape Putin now faces has changed vastly since his handoff to Medvedev in 2008. Europe is a stumble away from disaster. The arc of unrest reaching from Libya to Pakistan threatens to upset Central Asia’s brittle order. Relations with China are worsening. Another major hit to the world economy could bring Russia to its knees.