Putin-esque-ca

Vladimir Putin, that noted humanitarian, has an op-ed in today's NYT.  It got released last night, so I tweeted thusly

Putin's op-ed, invoking God and international law, is just a work of art. Reminds of the old "the devil can quote scripture" line
— Stephen Saideman (@smsaideman) September 12, 2013

That became probably my most re-tweeted tweet (and the narcissist in me is thrilled!).  Some people think that Putin has spun circles around Obama, and that may be true yet this op-ed piece almost entirely reverses the momentum.  Why?  Because it reminds us of several things:

1. the U.S. does not have the support of the Security Council because Russia has been protecting its ally. 
2. that Russia supports international law when it is convenient, not so much when it is not (ask Russia's neighbors).
3. writing such a piece in Russia just might get you killed--journalists seem to have a high death rate in Russia.
4. that some of the outsiders arming the combatants in Syria are ... Russians.  

Putin has played this crisis pretty well as of late, but this op-ed was a mis-step.  He hit "Donald Trump" on the unintentional comedy scale.