A Russian dissident journalist said yesterday that the moronic Russia collusion greatly emboldened Putin. He heard Americans repeat, time and again, that he was so immensely powerful that he actually managed to steal an American election. This made him feel really important and almost omnipotent.

Putin is obsessed with America. To him, having an impact in the country of his deep fixation is everything. If he could actually bring the US to its knees and subvert its vaunted democracy – and he must have done so if Americans themselves said it – then clearly he could crush a small, insignificant Ukraine. He’s not a smart guy and doesn’t understand that America likes to role-play at weakness precisely because it’s so strong. Russia collusion was a game devised for purely internal purposes. Nobody believed it and it meant absolutely nothing. It’s impossible to understand the coy playfulness of strength if you are not yourself strong.