Ya think? Vladimir Putin held a press conference this week after receiving credentials from a new group of foreign ambassadors, including a new US envoy. He took that opportunity to complain about the current state of relations between Russia and America, describing the relationship as being in a state of “deep crisis.” He amazingly went on to blame the United States for his invasion of Ukraine, saying America’s previous support of “color revolutions” were the root cause of the war. He also spread the blame around a bit, accusing the European Union of having “a policy of confrontation” with Russia. All of this was probably intended for consumption by his own people on Russian state media, but the sheer audacity on display was fairly remarkable. (Bloomberg)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations between the US and Russia are “experiencing a deep crisis,” as he sought to blame Washington for his invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

American encouragement of “color revolutions” led to the war in Ukraine, Putin said Wednesday at a Kremlin ceremony to receive the credentials of 17 new foreign ambassadors including US envoy Lynne Tracy and the European Union’s representative, Roland Galharague. Russia would continue to insist on “equality and respect for sovereignty” in relations, he said.

Has the United States made encouraging noises about pro-democracy protests in other countries? Obviously, we have. We’ve also promoted efforts to “westernize” the governments of former Soviet states through trade and diplomatic engagements. Those uprisings haven’t always worked out for the best (because democracy doesn’t always bloom in other cultures), but that has nothing to do with the fact that Putin was the one who decided to launch this war.

Putin is probably getting increasingly nervous about his own position and future viability. Recent defectors have reported that Mad Vlad has been growing increasingly paranoid and spends much of his time in isolation. Quite a few of his critics have “accidentally” fallen out of windows over the past year, but he clearly can’t silence everyone.

Putin promised his people in the beginning that his “special military operation” would only last a few days or weeks at most. Now the war is in its second year and the number of Russian casualties has climbed to the hundreds of thousands if not more than a million. Russia’s reputation as a military powerhouse is in ruins. And while the Russian economy has proven to be surprisingly resilient in the face of massive sanctions, the Russian people are still feeling the effects.

In short, this hasn’t worked out well for Russia at all. There doesn’t appear to be any sort of net positive effect that Putin can point to and he bears the sole responsibility for the ongoing, rolling disaster. But Vladimir Putin’s pride won’t allow him to retreat. If the reports of his current state of health are accurate, this will likely be Putin’s last international adventure. He has to find a way to come up with something that he can call a victory, but that may no longer be possible. With all of that in mind, perhaps it’s understandable why would feel the need to blame everyone but himself. But he’s clearly sounding less and less rational these days. And that’s a worrisome trait to observe in someone with thousands of nuclear weapons.